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The dramatic destruction of an ice shelf is a mere side show compared to the potential of catastrophic melting elsewhere in Antarctica.

The Wilkins ice shelf covers more than 5,000 square miles, is up to 650 feet thick, took more than 1,000 years to form and is on the verge of melting in less than a decade.

Almost 200 square miles of the ice shelf in the Antarctic Peninsula shattered into thousands of ice bergs over the last month, mostly on February 28. The rest of the shelf is expected to disappear rapidly in response to rising global temperatures.

But while regarded as an impressive effect of global warming its impact on sea level rises is insignificant compared to those that scientists fear will be caused in the Western Antarctic.

Climate researchers consider the southern continent to have three distinct regions - the Antarctic Peninsula, the Western Antarctic and the Eastern Antarctic.

They are most worried about the Western Antarctic where the greatest volume of ice has been lost and where there is the potential for sudden, unpredictable and extensive melting leading to rapid sea rises.

Loss of ice shelves in the Peninsula is calculated to have little effect on sea levels because they already float in the water.

In the Western Antarctic, however, much of the ice shelf rests on rock so when it melts the water runs into the sea and can cause a rise in ocean levels.

Warmer ocean temperatures have taken a huge toll on the ice shelves in the Western Antarctic where ice is thinning at a rate of about 6-7 feet a year.

“The problem is the Western Antarctic is extremely unpredictable,” said Professor David Vaughan, of the British Antarctic Survey.

“At current rates it’s contributing a fraction of a millimetre to sea level rises per year but the potential is there for an acceleration.”

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