( CNN ) -- A European satellite has observed a rapid retreat of one of Antarctica 's ice shelves , which is half the size it was 10 years ago , the European Space Agency said Thursday . The agency 's Envisat satellite shows part of the Larsen Ice Shelf , which lies on a peninsula south of Chile , has decreased from 3,463 square kilometers ( 1,337 square miles ) in March 2002 to 1,670 square kilometers ( 645 square miles ) today , a change the European Space Agency blames on warmer temperatures . `` Ice shelves are sensitive to atmospheric warming and to changes in ocean currents and temperatures , '' Helmut Rott from the University of Innsbruck said in an statement from the space agency . `` The northern Antarctic Peninsula has been subject to atmospheric warming of about 2.5 degrees Celsius ( 4.5 Fahrenheit degrees ) over the last 50 years -- a much stronger warming trend than on global average , causing retreat and disintegration of ice shelves . '' The waning is happening on the Larsen B ice shelf , one of three shelves that make up the Larsen Ice Shelf . Larsen A disintegrated in January 1995 . Larsen C has so far been stable , the space agency said , though satellites have observed some recent thinning and melting . Larsen B measured 11,512 square kilometers in January 1995 . It went down to 6,664 square kilometers in February 2002 after several parts broke off , and a month later Larsen B was down to 3,463 square kilometers . The space agency says the satellite 's observations confirm the vulnerability of the ice shelves to climatic warming .
The Larsen B ice shelf has decreased dramatically since March 2007 . The European Space Agency blames it on warmer temperatures . Another large ice shelf exists and a third is stable .