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Spy satellites reveal early start to Antarctic ice shelf collapse

Declassified images suggest ice flow sped up long before previously thought

Photograph of the Larsen B ice shelf

ICE SPY  Declassified photographs snapped in the 1960s by spy satellites suggest that Antarctica’s Larsen B ice shelf (shown here in 1963) began deteriorating decades before its 2002 collapse.

U.S. National Reconnaissance Office via USGS

By Thomas Sumner

- More than 2 years ago

The biggest ice shelf collapse on record was set in motion years earlier than previously thought, new research reveals.