Antarctica’s Larsen Ice Shelf has been breaking up for decades, but the 2002 Larsen B collapse was particularly dramatic. After being stable for at least 10,000 years, a large section of the shelf broke apart, with repercussions felt across the planet. The widespread changes in Antarctica have been extensively studied and published, but contextualizing and … Read more
Today, few deny the impact of global warming. Now that the term has become slang for everything that is wrong with the planet, experts have been conducting empirical studies of its impact on the Antarctic ice sheets. What used to be called “forever” is now melting rapidly, at a rate that was previously unimaginable. This … Read more
A 2023 study highlighted unexpected extreme cold events in Antarctica during a year of global heat records, emphasizing the need to understand such atmospheric anomalies for improved operational safety in the region. Credit: SciTechDaily.com A 2023 study documented unprecedented cold spells in Antarctica, which stands in stark contrast to global heat records and underlines the … Read more
Grenades have fascinated humans for millennia. The ancient Egyptians decorated their jewelry with garnets, and the Greeks called them “lamp stones” because they believed they could help them see in the dark. Recently, crystallized garnet particles have highlighted a fascinating geological link between Australia and Antarctica, uncovering an ancient Antarctic mountain range now under ice. … Read more
If you’ve ever built a sand castle on the beach, you’ve seen how seawater in the sand can quickly undermine the castle. A new study from the British Antarctic Survey concludes that warmer seawater may act in a similar way on the underside of ground-based ice sheets, causing them to melt faster than previously thought. … Read more
Australia’s vast beaches seem a world away from the towering glaciers of Antarctica, and yet clues found in the antipodean sands have led to a dazzling discovery on the frozen continent. The incredible discovery was made when scientists started noticing pink streaks washing up on the remote southern beach of Petrel Cove, about 90km from … Read more
The frozen continent of Antarctica is, paradoxically, a hotbed of volcanic activity. The ice-covered area is home to approximately 138 volcanoes nestled beneath the snow, 91 of which were discovered as recently as 2017. Although most of them are considered dormant or possibly extinct, three have erupted in recent history according to the Smithsonian Institution’s … Read more
Millions of years ago, Antarctica looked very different from the icy landscape we know today. A research expedition led by the Alfred Wegener Institute has uncovered a hidden secret. Geologists discovered evidence of an ancient river system by studying sediment samples from the Amundsen Sea. This suggests that Antarctica supported a temperate climate about 34 … Read more
credit – Matthew Mulrennan, Colossal Last year, a group of scientists trying to capture images of a colossal squid, the largest invertebrate on Earth, in its natural habitat may have won their prize when one of their underwater cameras captured a young glass squid swimming by. Colossal squids are members of the glass squid family, … Read more
Researchers from the University of Copenhagen used aerial photographs from 1937 to analyze the stability and growth of the ice in East Antarctica, showing that despite some signs of weakening, the ice has remained largely stable for almost a century, contradicting predictions about sea level rise is improving. Credit: Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromsø A … Read more