News of the Wilkins ice shelf's impending break-up came less than two weeks after the United Nation's Environment Program reported that the world's glaciers are melting away and that they show "record" losses.

CNN: Massive ice shelf on verge of breakup

"Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened, " David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey said, according to the Web site.

CNN: Massive ice shelf on verge of breakup