"N_Cook" wrote in message news
The lack of Antarctic sea-ice area is before Larsen C breaks off

Are you sure that the ice-shelf areas contribute to the overall sea ice
figures? My impression was that they didn't - I guess on the basis that are
(largely?) grounded ice fed by glaciers rather than floating sea ice. I
thought that the 'land' area boundaries of Antarctica on the extent maps
actually included the ice shelves. But ICBW and I'm sure someone here must
know for sure.