EVEN the depths of winter are proving unable to halt the climate change-induced collapse of an Antarctic ice shelf.

When the Wilkins shelf began a runaway disintegration at the end of last summer, scientists thought it unlikely the collapse would continue through the pole's coldest months.

But satellite images show losses growing in recent days, so that at last sight, only a thin and fractured ice bridge held the bulk of the giant shelf in place. Its loss would put the rest of the 14,500- square-kilometre ice shelf at risk, the European Space Agency said.

The British Antarctic Survey's David Vaughan said the rate of break-up showed scientists were too conservative in the early 1990s when they predicted Wilkins would be lost in 30 years.

"The truth is it's going more quickly than we guessed," Dr Vaughan said.