Antarctic ice shelves affect the mass loss of the Antarctic ice sheet and are vulnerable to damage from crevasses and rifts. Decades of satellite observations link this damage to past thinning and retreat of ice shelves. Damage is projected to intensify under future high-emission climate scenarios, further weakening ice shelves and accelerating ice loss.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$32.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to the full article PDF.
USD 39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Bassis, J. N. et al. Stability of ice shelves and ice cliffs in a changing climate. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 52, 221–247 (2024). A review article on the observed modes of calving from ice shelves and marine-terminating glaciers and their relation to environmental forces.
Fox-Kemper, B. et al. in Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis (eds Masson-Delmotte, V. et al.) 1211–1362 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2021). The contribution of Working Group I (integrating multiple lines of scientific evidence to provide robust knowledge relevant for policymaking) to the Sixth Assessment Report of the IPCC.
Izeboud, M. & Lhermitte, S. Damage detection on Antarctic ice shelves using the normalised radon transform. Remote Sens. Environ. 284, 113359 (2023). This paper presents the algorithm used to detect damage features.
Seroussi, H. et al. ISMIP6 Antarctica: a multi-model ensemble of the Antarctic ice sheet evolution over the 21st century. Cryosphere 14, 3033–3070 (2020). This paper presents projections of the Antarctic ice sheet and the data that we used in this study to generate damage estimates.
Fürst, J. J. et al. The safety band of Antarctic ice shelves. Nat. Clim. Change 6, 479–482 (2016). This paper shows the importance of ice shelves for mass loss of the Antarctic ice sheet.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This is a summary of: Izeboud, M. et al. Damage development on Antarctic ice shelves sensitive to climate warming. Nat. Clim. Change https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02453-4 (2025).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fracturing of Antarctic ice shelves depends on future climate warming rate. Nat. Clim. Chang. 15, 1277–1278 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02479-8
Published:
Version of record:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02479-8
