 Ice shelves are not stable when surface melting occurs , and the collapse of Larsen Ice Shelf has been caused by warmer melt season temperatures that have led to surface melting and the formation of shallow ponds of water on the ice shelf . The Larsen Ice Shelf lost 2 @,@ 500 km2 ( 970 sq mi ) of its area from 1995 to 2001 . In a 35 @-@ day period beginning on January 31 , 2002 , about 3 @,@ 250 km2 ( 1 @,@ 250 sq mi ) of shelf area disintegrated . The ice shelf is now 40 % the size of its previous minimum stable extent . In 2015 a study concluded that the remaining Larsen B ice @-@ shelf will disintegrate by the end of the decade , based on observations of faster flow and rapid thinning of glaciers in the area . Jones Ice Shelf had an area of 35 km2 ( 14 sq mi ) in the 1970s but by 2008 it had disappeared . Wordie Ice Shelf has gone from an area of 1 @,@ 500 km2 ( 580 sq mi ) in 1950 to 1 @,@ 400 km2 ( 540 sq mi ) in 2000 . Prince Gustav Ice Shelf has gone from an area of 1 @,@ 600 km2 ( 620 sq mi ) to 1 @,@ 100 km2 ( 420 sq mi ) in 2008 . After their loss the reduced buttressing of feeder glaciers has allowed the expected speed @-@ up of inland ice masses after shelf ice break @-@ up . The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica ( an area of roughly 487 @,@ 000 square kilometres ( 188 @,@ 000 sq mi ) and about 800 kilometres ( 500 mi ) across : about the size of France ) . Wilkins Ice Shelf is another ice shelf that has suffered substantial retreat . The ice shelf had an area of 16 @,@ 000 km2 ( 6 @,@ 200 sq mi ) in 1998 when 1 @,@ 000 km2 ( 390 sq mi ) was lost that year . In 2007 and 2008 significant rifting developed and led to the loss of another 1 @,@ 400 km2 ( 540 sq mi ) of area and some of the calving occurred in the Austral winter . The calving seemed to have resulted from preconditioning such as thinning , possibly due to basal melt , as surface melt was not as evident , leading to a reduction in the strength of the pinning point connections . The thinner ice then experienced spreading rifts and breakup . This period culminated in the collapse of an ice bridge connecting the main ice shelf to Charcot Island leading to the loss of an additional 700 km2 ( 270 sq mi ) between February and June 2009 . 
