“Using ice-penetrating radar instruments flown on aircraft, a team of scientists from the U.S. and U.K. have uncovered a previously unknown sub-glacial basin nearly the size of New Jersey beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet near the Weddell Sea. The location, shape and texture of the mile-deep basin suggest that this region of the ice sheet is at a greater risk of collapse than previously thought.” Quoted from the University of Texas at Austin press release.
Warm ocean currents attacking the underside of ice shelves are the dominant cause of recent ice loss from Antarctica, a new study using measurements from NASA’s Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite revealed.
“A new study examining nearly 40 years of satellite imagery has revealed that the floating ice shelves of a critical portion of West Antarctica are steadily losing their grip on adjacent bay walls, potentially amplifying an already accelerating loss of ice to the sea.” Quoted from The University of Texas at Austin press release.
“The frigid McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica are a cold, polar desert, yet the sandy soils there are frequently dotted with moist patches in the spring despite a lack of snowmelt and no possibility of rain. A new study found the salty soils in the region actually suck moisture out of the atmosphere, raising the possibility that such a process could take place on Mars or on other planets.” Quoted from the Oregon State University press release.
Field studies have shown that invasive plant species are being brought to Antarctica on the clothing and baggage of researchers and other visitors. They are then carried to diverse locations – often deep into the interior – where some of them take root.
Russian scientists have successfully drilled through two miles of Antarctic ice to reach Lake Vostok, a freshwater lake that has been isolated from the atmosphere for possibly 30 million years.
“In the first comprehensive satellite study of its kind, a University of Colorado at Boulder-led team used NASA data to calculate how much Earth’s melting land ice is adding to global sea level rise.” Quoted from the NASA press release.
High latitude areas around the Earth are seeing spectacular aurora displays in response to an intense solar storm that occurred last week. These displays are expected to be very frequent over the next two years as the sun goes through a period of frequent activity.
“The bottom of a glacier is not the most hospitable place on Earth, but at least two types of bacteria happily live there.” Quoted from the Penn State press release.
Felicity Aston is about three weeks into her solo trek across Antarctica. She left the Ross Ice Shelf on November 25 and is crossing the South Pole on her way to the opposite side of the continent.
One hundred years ago today, a team led by Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole while the team led by Robert Falcon Scott was facing unforeseen obstacles trying to get there and even more obstacles preventing their return.
Most maps are drawn with north at the top. The main exception is polar maps where the north pole (or south pole) is near the center of the map. A new article on the About.com Geography site explores why north is at the top of most maps.
Felicity Aston is ready to begin an attempt to cross the Antarctic continent alone using only muscle power. If successful she will be the first person ever to accomplish this feat
NSF-funded researches are figuring out the ancient tectonic events that form the subglacial Gamburtsev Mountains hidden beneath the Antarctic ice cover.
Businessweek has an article that traces the history of the icebreaker from the first steam-powered vessel built to clear Philadelphia’s harbor to the new polar-class vessels that will be needed as activity in the Arctic escalates.
NASA researchers have noticed a large crack across the Pine Island Glacer in Antarctica. They believe that it has the potential to produce an iceberg with a surface area of over 300 square miles.
David M. Wilson, a polar historian, has published a collection of images with descriptions from Robert Falcon Scott’s 1910-1913 Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole. The New York Times has a photo gallery featuring some of the images.
Explore the number of daylight hours at any latitude for any day of the year using the sliders on this interesting interactive. “Shows the hours of daylight received during the year for an observer at a given latitude. This is an important factor contributing to the seasons.”
A team of researchers funded by the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council will use a hot-water drill to melt through the ice to obtain samples of water and sediments from Lake Ellsworth.
Russia and China are very interested in the mineral resources of Antarctica and hope that the current ban on mining will be lifted in 2048. They currently have seafloor exploration projects on ocean ridges that approach the continent.
First complete map of the speed and direction of ice flow in Antarctica, derived from radar interferometric data from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s ALOS PALSAR, the European Space Agency’s Envisat ASAR and ERS-1/2, and the Canadian Space Agency’s RADARSAT-2 spacecraft. The color-coded satellite data are overlaid on a mosaic of Antarctica created with data from NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument on NASA’s Terra spacecraft. Quoted from the NSAS press release.
“Recent data from NSF-funded research in both Greenland and Antarctica demonstrate that fossil-fuel related emissions of both methane and ethane, two of the most abundant hydrocarbons in the atmosphere, declined at the end of the twentieth century.” Quoted from the National Science Foundation news release.
“These changes, though different at each pole, could be significant in their effects on not only the local environment, but also globally. While the central part of the Arctic is composed of ice over water, northern Canada, Alaska, Siberia and Greenland all have landmasses within the Arctic Circle.” Quoted from the Penn State University news release.
Australia currently has a claim to the Australian Antarctic Territory, covering 42% of Antarctica. However, an influential thinktank believes that their claim is in jeopardy because they have limited presence and capabilities there. At the same time Russia and China are increasing their Antarctic capabilities. The energy and mineral resource potential of the Australian Antarctic Territory is believed to be significant.
“A NASA scientist and her colleagues were able to observe for the first time the power of an earthquake and tsunami to break off large icebergs a hemisphere away.” Quoted from the NASA image release.
According to an international team of researchers parts of Antarctica and North America were connected over a billion years ago, well before Pangaea formed.
“Dog-sized dinosaurs that lived near the South Pole, sometimes in the dark for months at a time, had bone tissue very similar to dinosaurs that lived everywhere on the planet, according to a doctoral candidate at Montana State University.” Quoted from the Montana State University news release.
“During the last prolonged warm spell on Earth, the oceans were at least four meters — and possibly as much as 6.5 meters, or about 20 feet — higher than they are now. [...] Mainly from melting ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica, and many scientists, including UW-Madison geoscience assistant professor Anders Carlson, have expected that Greenland was the main culprit.” Quoted from the University of Wisconsin-Madison news release.
“An analysis of prehistoric “Heinrich events” that happened many thousands of years ago, creating mass discharges of icebergs into the North Atlantic Ocean, make it clear that very small amounts of subsurface warming of water can trigger a rapid collapse of ice shelves.” Quoted from the Oregon State University news release.
“A painstaking examination of the first direct and detailed climate record from the continental shelves surrounding Antarctica reveals that the last remnant of Antarctic vegetation existed in a tundra landscape on the continent’s northern peninsula about 12 million years ago.” Quoted from the Rice University news release.
“Scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have discovered previously unknown volcanoes in the ocean waters around the remote South Sandwich Islands.” Quoted from the British Antarctic Survey press release.
“Stronger ocean currents beneath West Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier Ice Shelf are eroding the ice from below, speeding the melting of the glacier as a whole.” Quoted from the Earth Institute of Columbia University press release.
“Scientists from the U.S., U.K. and Australia have used ice-penetrating radar to create the first high-resolution topographic map of [..] some of the largest fjords or ice cut channels on Earth, providing important insights into the history of ice in Antarctica.” Quoted from The University of Texas at Austin press release.
“As the global ocean currents were formed and strengthened, the redistribution of heat likely played a significant role in the overall cooling of the Earth.” Quoted from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute news release.
“The first comprehensive study of the biological effects of Antarctic icebergs shows that they fertilize the Southern Ocean, enhancing the growth of algae that take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.” Quoted from Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute news release.
“Riddles locked deep within the Antarctic ice and underlying continent may hold answers to some of the planet’s most enigmatic questions. New Mexico Tech scientists are among a small army of researchers seeking to unlock the geological and climate workings of Planet Earth from the frozen continent.” Quoted from the New Mexico Tech press release.
“A team of scientists in the United Kingdom and the United States has warned that the native fauna and unique ecology of the Southern Ocean, the vast body of water that surrounds the Antarctic continent, is under threat from human activity.” Quoted from the National Oceanography Centre press release.
“Icebergs cool and dilute the oceanwater they pass through and also affect the distribution of carbon-dioxide-absorbing phytoplankton in the Southern Ocean [...] the effects are likely to influence the growth of phytoplankton in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean and especially in an area known as “Iceberg Alley” east of the Antarctic Peninsula.” Quoted from the University of San Diego press release.
NASA researchers have found a new mineral named “Wassonite” in a meteorite found in Antarctica. Wassonite consists of only two elements, sulfur and titanium.
“Scientists working in the remotest part of Antarctica have discovered that liquid water locked deep under the continent’s coat of ice regularly thaws and refreezes to the bottom, creating as much as half the thickness of the ice in places, and actively modifying its structure.” Quoted from the National Science Foundation announcement.
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