Wilkins Sound

Wilkins Sound is a sound in Antarctica that is largely occupied by the Wilkins Ice Shelf; it is located between the concave western coastline of Alexander Island and the shores of Charcot Island and Latady Island farther to the west.

Its northern portion was first seen and roughly mapped in 1910 by the French Antarctic Expedition under Jean-Baptiste Charcot and was observed from the air in 1929 by Sir Hubert Wilkins. The configuration of the sound was determined in 1940 on exploratory flights by the US Antarctic Service (USAS). It was named by the USAS for Sir Hubert Wilkins, who in 1929 first proved "Charcot Land" to be an island and thereby indirectly discovered this feature. The existence of Latady Island at the southwest side of the sound was determined in 1960 by D.J.H. Searle of Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS) by examination of air photos taken by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition (RARE), 1947-48.

Wilkins Ice Shelf

The Wilkins Ice Shelf is a rectangular ice shelf about 80 miles long and 60 miles wide. This feature occupies the central part of Wilkins Sound, from which it takes its name. The name was proposed by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) in 1971. On March 25, 2008 a 160 square mile chunk of the Wilkins ice shelf disintegrated, putting an even larger portion of the glacial ice shelf at risk.^[1] Scientists^[2] were surprised when they discovered the rest of the 14000 square kilometer^[3]ice shelf is beginning to break away from the continent. What is left of the Wilkins ice shelf is now holding on by a narrow beam of ice.^[4]

The recent collapse of this portion of the ice shelf is believed to be the result of global warming.^[5] In 1993 Professor David Vaughn of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) predicted that the northern part of the Wilkins ice shelf was likely to be lost within 30 years if climate warming on the Peninsula were to continue at the same rate.^[6]