Wilkins Ice Shelf hanging by its last thread   The Wilkins Ice Shelf is experiencing further disintegration. This animation, comprised of images acquired by Envisat’s Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) between 30 May and 9 July 2008, shows the break-up event which began on 28 June on the east (right) rather than the on west (left) like the previous event that occurred last month. By 8 July, a fracture that could open the ice bridge was visible.   Annotated image of Wilkins Ice Shelf acquired on 9 July 2008 by Envisat's ASAR instrument, showing the ice bridge connecting to Charcot Island and Latady Island (bottom left). A new fracture that could open the ice bridge is visible at the bottom of the ice bridge.   This image of the Wilkins Ice Shelf was acquired on 13 January 1992 using ERS-1's SAR instrument. Shades of grey have been assigned to backscatter values, white indicates no backscatter, black indicates high backscatter.   Map showing break-up events of Larsen-B and Wilkins ice shelves, as observed by Envisat, in Antarctica. Release date: 28 February 2012