We just learned about the Antarctic Ice Sheet.
Another part of Antarctica is the Larsen Ice Shelf.
This is the shelf of ice that's on the Antarctic Peninsula.
An ice shelf is a big piece of ice that goes out from the land and has water underneath it.
The Larsen Ice Shelf used to be about 33,000 square miles, but because of global warming it has gotten 7,000 square miles smaller and is now 26,000 square miles.
The ice shelf is split up into parts A, B, C, D, E, F and G.
Shelf A melted away in 1995 and is gone. It was about 500 square miles, twice the size of the city of Chicago.
Shelf B is almost gone, and in 2002 over 1,250 square miles broke off and floated away. That is about the size of the state of Rhode Island. This ice shelf had not melted for over 10,000 years.
Shelf C is melting and breaking away also. It is 17,000 square miles. In 2017 a 2,200 square mile piece broke off and floated away. This iceberg was called A68, weighed more than a trillion tons, and was taller than a 70 story building.
Shelf D has not broken away so far and is about 8,000 square miles.
(from: wikipedia - larsen ice shelf)
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