1 Crunch time
Twice in the last decade parts of the giant Larsen ice shelf in Antarctica have broken up and split off into the ocean. This photograph, taken by the MODIS satellite, shows the second such incident in 1999. However, images like these reveal only part of the story. It took several more years for scientists to demonstrate - using radar from satellites - that physical changes in the constitution of the ice shelf had triggered the disintegration.