Abstract The 28-29 February, 2008, break-up of the Wilkins Ice Shelf, Antarctica, exemplifies
the now-familiar, yet largely unexplained pattern of explosive ice-shelf break-up. While
environmental warming is a likely ultimate cause of explosive break-up, several key aspects
of their short-term behavior need to be explained:(1) The abrupt, near-simultaneous onset of
iceberg calving across long spans of the ice front margin;(2) High outward drift velocity
(about 0.3 m/s) of a leading phalanx of tabular icebergs that originate from the seaward …