Satellite images show that a large part of the Antarctica's massive Wilkins Ice Shelf, a plate of permanently floating ice, situated on the southwest Antarctic Peninsula, has begun disintegrating under the effects of global warming.

The dimension of the shelf was about 160 square miles (415 square kilometers) in area—about seven times the size of Manhattan.

David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey noted for National Geographic that the larger formation from which the chunk detached—the Wilkins Ice Shelf—could itself collapse in 15 years. The collapse began on February 28. In a statement made for the Associated Press, Vaughan said that events like this are unusual but in recent decades they are more frequent. He compared the chunk of ice to what happens to a hardened glass when it is smashed with a hammer.

"It's an event we don't get to see very often," said Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo, quoted by the AP. "The cracks fill with water and slice off and topple... That gets to be a runaway situation."

The rest of the Wilkins ice shelf is in danger of collapsing and, as Vaughan predicted, this could happen about 15 years from now one.

The good thing is the Antarctic summer will end and scientists are not concerned anymore about a rise in sea level from the latest event. They stated this was consequence of global warming and it indicates the effect of climate change for the region.