More scary news from the southern tip of our planet. News we’ve been expecting. An ice bridge linking a shelf of ice the size of Jamaica to an island in Antarctica has broken. Researchers are saying that the collapse could mean that the Wilkins Ice Shelf is on the verge of completely breaking away. The Wilkins ice shelf has been retreating for the last two decades, but this is the first time it has lost one of the connections that keeps it in place.It snapped at the thinnest point of the 25 mile wide strip of ice.

Recently revealed European Space Agency satellite image shows newly created icebergs floating in the sea on the western side of the Antarctic peninsula, which juts up from the continent towards South America’s southern tip.

While this shelf break won’t necessarily have an impact on sea level, it increases the already intense concerns about the impact of climate change on this part of Antarctica. The Antarctic Peninsula has experienced unprecedented warming over the last 50 years and a number of Antarctic ice shelves have retreated in the past 30 years, with six of them collapsing entirely.

Who’s ready for panic time? I know, I know, I’ve officially become part of the fear-mongering media but this one doesn’t sound like the type of story you’d want to ignore.

As we reported earlier the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder has satellite imagery showing a 5,282 square mile Antarctic ice shelf has started collapsing.

Now, geophysicists out of the University of Toronto have done research that indicates that the collapse of this Antarctic ice shelf could result in an actual shift in the Earth’s axis. Holy shift!

Their research, which will be published today in the journal Science, shows that when sea levels rise after the ice shelf collapse the Earth’s rotation could be affected.

A press release from the University of Toronto’s physics department goes on to state that, “The melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet will actually cause the Earth´s rotation axis to shift rather dramatically — approximately 500 metres from its present position if the entire ice sheet melts.”

Geophysicist Jerry Mitrovica continues, saying previous analysis was likely too conservative and that many coastal regions will see water levels rise by 25 percent more than expected, for a total of six to seven meters.

“That’s a lot of additional water, particularly around such highly populated areas as Washington, D.C., New York City, and the California coastline,” Mitrovica stated.

Satellite imagery from the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder reveals that a 13,680 square kilometer (5,282 square mile) ice shelf has begun to collapse because of rapid climate change in a fast-warming region of Antarctica.