Photographs of the Wilkins Ice Shelf show that the area is "at risk of partly breaking away," according to ESA. The latest photographs were taken Thursday by the agency's Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) satellite.

An ice bridge that connects the shelf to the islands of Charcot and Latady "looks set to collapse," ESA said in a statement on its website. "The beginning of what appears to be the demise of the ice bridge began this week when new rifts forming along its center axis resulted in a large block of ice breaking away," the statement added.

The satellite images showed that "rifts are quickly expanding along the ice bridge," according to ESA.

ESA announced in November that the Wilkins Ice Shelf had lost nearly 700 square miles in 2008.