A substantial chunk of ice has broken away from the Arctic's largest remaining ice shelf as a result of warmer temperatures, scientists have confirmed.
The section, which broke away and fractured into smaller pieces in Greenland, was around 110 square km, satellite imagery shows.
Researchers said the breaking up of Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden, otherwise know as 79N, was further evidence of rapid climate change occurring in the region.
Speaking to the BBC, Dr Jenny Turton, a polar researcher at Friedrich-Alexander University in Germany, said temperatures there have increased by 3C in as many decades.
"The atmosphere in this region has warmed by about 3C since 1980," she said. "And in 2019 and 2020, it saw record summer temperatures."
The shelf has now disintegrated at a section known as the Spalte Glacier.
It was already fractured by summer temperatures last year, but this year weather added to the problem.
Scientists studying oceans have also seen higher water temperatures in the region leading to experts theorising that the mound of ice is being melted from above and below.
Prof Jason Box from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) told the publication: "79N became 'the largest remaining Arctic ice shelf' only fairly recently, after the Petermann Glacier in northwest Greenland lost a lot of area in 2010 and 2012.
"What makes 79N so important is the way it's attached to the interior ice sheet, and that means that one day - if the climate warms as we expect - this region will probably become one of the major centres of action for the deglaciation of Greenland."
He explained the middle section of the shelf was likely to come apart in another "10 or 20 years".
Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden was not the first mound to break apart this summer, and in July 80sq km of ice came away from the Milne Ice Shelf in Canada.
Scientists said in 2019 530 billion tonnes of ice sheet melted - enough to raise global sea levels by around 1.5mm.
