The Dawn Of Blue Lagoon In Iceland

These pictures show how global warming is affecting a glacier in Iceland...

The Breidamerkurjokull glacier in Iceland has raced in from the mountains, smothering a shimmering lagoon that sits at the edge of the Atlantic on the country's south coast

Pictured above is the glacier and lagoon in 2002

.here's the lagoon in 2008, before it became filled with glacial ice...

..and here it is in June 2009, filled with icebergs.

The worrying change in conditions means the lagoon is now full of melting glacial ice that is causing gallons of additional fresh water to flow into the sea

The glacier measures a staggering 60 miles long. Its surge into the nearby lagoon has now been ongoing for two months and is showing no signs of stopping as gigantic blocks of ice back up and fill the water basin.

For 30 years professional photographer Ragnar Sigurdsson has been taking pictures of the stunning area of natural beauty which has been given national park status

"I have never seen anything like it since I started coming here," he said. "It is perfectly natural for a glacier to move. They tend to recede or advance in cycles but this time the tongue of the Breidamerkurjokull has come all the way down into the lagoon"

Ragnar, 51, from Reykjavik, said: "There is no threat of a disaster. The rate that the water rises, it would take more than 50 years for it to take the bridge but people in the area still feel it's global warming that's doing it. The end result is this extra freshwater is pouring into the sea at an alarming rate"

Despite the frozen look of the pool from afar, the ice is gradually melting - increasing the overflow of the lagoon into the sea.

Dooms Day Near ? Shattered Antarctic Ice Bridge Fuels Global Warming

An ice bridge which held a vast Antarctic ice shelf in place shattered on Saturday, raising fears about global warming.

Scientists are concerned that greater collapses will now occur in the Antarctic Peninsula.

Satellite images from the European Space Agency show that a 25-mile-long strip of ice believed to pin the Wilkins Ice Shelf in place had splintered at its narrowest point, about 500 metres wide.

The Wilkins ice shelf has snapped for the first time, causing consternation at the state of the environment

This may now allow ocean currents to wash away far more of the Wilkins shelf.

David Vaughan, a glaciologist with the British Antarctic Survey, said: 'We've waited a long time to see this. My feeling is that we will lose more of the ice, but there will be a remnant to the south.'

The Wilkins, now the size of Jamaica, is one of ten shelves to have shrunk or collapsed in recent decades on the peninsula.

Cores of sediments on the seabed indicate that some of these ice shelves had been in place for at least 10,000 years

Since 1950, the ice bridge that cracked apart on Saturday had more than halved in length.

Temperatures in the Antarctic have risen by up to about 5.4f (3c) in the past 50 years, the fastest rate of warming in the Southern Hemisphere.

Antarctica's response to warming will go a long way to deciding the pace of global sea level rise.

Imaging of the ice shelf and the change seen since 2008

The loss of ice shelves does not affect sea levels - floating ice contracts as it melts and so does not raise ocean levels.

But their loss can allow glaciers on land to slide more rapidly towards the sea, adding water to the oceans.

About 175 nations have been meeting in Bonn, Germany, since March 29 as part of a push to agree by the end of 2009 a new U.N. treaty to combat climate change.

Scientists say change in the Antarctic is rarely as dramatic as it has been in recent times

The U.S. is also pushing to protect Antarctica's fragile environment by imposing mandatory limits on the size of cruise ships sailing there and the number of passengers they bring ashore, minimising the likelihood of oil spills.

At a conference starting today in Baltimore, U.S. diplomats will propose amending the 50-year-old international Antarctic Treaty.

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