Global warming is too simplistic explanation...

The collapsing ice shelf in the Antarctic is not totally due to global warming...

Global warming may not be entirely to blame for the collapse of an Antarctic ice shelf in 2002, according to research published today.

The 10,000-year-old Larsen B ice shelf was initially believed to be a victim of climate change.

But a paper published in the Journal of Glaciology claims the shelf had been teetering on collapse for decades.

Professor Neil Glasser, of Aberystwyth University, the paper's lead author, said cracks and fault lines in the ice had significantly weakened the structure.

"Ice shelf collapse is not as simple as we first thought," he said.

"Because large amounts of meltwater appeared on the ice shelf just before it collapsed, we had always assumed that air temperature increases were to blame.

"But our new study shows that ice shelf break-up is not controlled simply by climate.

"A number of other atmospheric, oceanic and glaciological factors are involved. For example, the location and spacing of fractures on the ice shelf such as crevasses and rifts are very important too because they determine how strong or weak the ice shelf is."