Antarctica

But a new find by the Antarctic Heritage Trust suggests it's no match for a 106-year-old British fruitcake.

Conservators found the elderly cake on Cape Adare, and believe it belonged to British explorer Robert Falcon Scott - known as Scott of the Antarctic.

Although the cake's tin was rusted, the team said it was in "excellent condition" and smelled edible.

The New Zealand-based Trust found it in Antarctica's oldest building, a hut built by Norwegian explorer Carsten Borchgrevink's team in 1899, and used by Capt Scott in 1911 during his Terra Nova expedition.

There's an area on the west side of the icy continent called the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, and last January, scientists found a 300,000-square-mile portion of its perimeter was melting. That's an area roughly two times the size of California, covered in slush.

According to recent research published in Nature Communications, the melt was caused by an unusually strong El Niño event around January 2016.

A long-running rift in the Larson C ice shelf grew suddenly in December and now just 20km of ice is keeping the 5000 sq km piece from floating away.

Larsen C is the most northern major ice shelf in Antarctica.

Researchers based in Swansea say the loss of a piece a quarter of the size of Wales will leave the whole shelf vulnerable to future break-up.

Larsen C is about 350m thick and floats on the seas at the edge of West Antarctica, holding back the flow of glaciers that feed into it.