The vast Wilkins ice shelf in Antarctica is on the brink of collapse, scientists have warned.

It is held in place by a 25-mile long strip of ice that has shrunk to about 500m wide at its narrowest point and could collapse at any time.

Glaciologist David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey said it is miraculous the shelf is still there.

The Wilkins once covered 6,178 sq miles but lost a third of its area and is now the size of Jamaica, but once the ice bridge collapses, sea currents are likely to sweep away much of what is left.

Nine other shelves have collapsed or receded around the Antarctic peninsula in the past 50 years - often abruptly such as the Larsen A in 1995 or the Larsen B in 2002.

The change is widely blamed on heat-trapping gases from burning fossil fuels.

In total, about 15,500 sq miles of ice shelves have been lost, changing the maps of Antarctica in one of the most dramatic signs of climate change.

Ocean sediments indicate that some shelves had been in place for at least 10,000 years.

Wilkins is named after Australian George Hubert Wilkins, a pioneering Antarctic aviator.

He is set to join the small group of a people who have had an area of the globe named after them that vanishes.

Temperatures on the Antarctic Peninsula have warmed by about 3C since 1950.

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