Antarctic ice shelves melting rapidly

Updated: 10:53, Friday April 6, 2012

The European Space Agency has released new satellite images of Antarctic ice shelves melting at alarming rates.

The Larsen shelves are thick floating mats of ice that run along the eastern side of the Antarctic peninsula.

Over the last 17 years, Larsen B has shrunk from 11, 500 square kilometres, to its present 1,600 square kilometres.

The Larsen A shelf completely disintegrated in 1995.

Experts say climate change in the region is to blame.