An international team of researchers found evidence that rainforests once existed in West Antarctica. The mid-Cretaceous time period, from circa 115 million to 80 million years ago, is considered the warmest period in the past 140 million years. Sea surface...
April 01, 2020
An atmospheric wave about half as wide as the Earth is supercharging noctilucent clouds (NLCs) in the southern hemisphere, with NASA's Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) spacecraft detecting the phenomenon in this series of south polar images from November...
December 05, 2019
A recently published study found that Antartica's ice sheets are still emitting radioactive chlorine from marine nuclear weapon tests in the 1950s. This suggests that Antartica regions contain and release the radioactive element differently than what was...
October 16, 2019
Scientists have discovered active volcano heat source under Antartica's fastest-moving and melting glacier - Pine Island Glacier. The surprising find, published recently in Nature Communications, offers insight into the movement and melting of the Pine Island...
June 29, 2018
A strong and shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.0 hit 265 km (164 miles) NE of Scott Island Bank, Antarctica at 11:37 UTC on February 2, 2018. The agency is reporting a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). EMSC is reporting the same magnitude and depth....
February 02, 2018
At the base of the Transantarctic Mountains lies a geological oddity. Don Juan Pond is one of the saltiest bodies of water on the planet, filled with a dense, syrupy brine rich in calcium chloride that can remain liquid to -50 °C (-58 °F), far below the...
November 17, 2017
A new study adds to evidence that a geothermal heat source called a mantle plume lies deep below Antarctica's Marie Byrd Land, explaining some of the melting that forms lakes and rivers under the ice sheet. Although the heat source isn't a new or increasing...
November 12, 2017
A remote survey suggested by third-year university student discovered 91 volcanoes in a massive region known as the West Antarctic Rift System. The volcanoes range in height from 100 m to 3 850 m (328 to 12 631 feet). A study conceived by a third-year student at the...
August 14, 2017
After months of ‘hanging by a thread’, a vast iceberg the size of Norfolk has finally broken off Antarctica’s Larsen C Ice Shelf. Around 30 m (98 feet) of this 190 m (623 feet) thick block of ice sits above the sea surface. Scientists now have...
July 12, 2017
Contrary to announcement made last month that Australia is about to close its permanent sub-Antarctic research base at World Heritage-listed Macquarie Island after almost 70 years of continuous presence, the government has instead decided to boost the funding and...
October 14, 2016
A newly published study offers evidence that the negative phase of the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO), which is characterized by cooler-than-average sea surface temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific, has created favorable conditions for additional...
July 05, 2016
Two massive icebergs broke off the Antarctic coastline over the weekend, threatening valuable scientific equipment deployed by New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA). NIWA scientists have been monitoring satellite images of the...
April 11, 2016
An international team of researchers led by paleontologists from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the University of Texas at Austin, Ohio University and the American Museum of Natural History are set to travel to Antarctica in search for evidence that some...
February 02, 2016
A new study led by NASA's glaciologists Jay Zwally, says that an increase in Antarctic snow accumulation that began 10 000 years ago is currently adding enough ice to the continent to outweigh the increased losses from its thinning glaciers. The research...
November 02, 2015
Using a novel, helicopter-borne sensor to penetrate the surface of large swathes of terrain, a team of researchers supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) has gathered compelling evidence that beneath Antarctica's ice-free McMurdo Dry Valleys lies a salty
April 30, 2015
South Pole Ice Core (SPICE) project is a joint effort by researchers from the University of Washington and the University of California, Irvine to 'dig' 40 000 years into climate history at the planet's southernmost tip. The ice core will be drilled to a dep
January 22, 2015
One of the larger eruptions of Antarctica's Mount Erebus this year occurred at 09:12 UTC on December 4, 2014 and ejected bombs onto the summit cone of Erebus, Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory (MEVO) reports.Mount Erebus is one of several volcanoes in the McMurdo Vol
December 07, 2014
Sections of Antarctica's frozen desert can experience hundreds of micro-quakes an hour due to ice deformation. These quakes are also called icequakes and they are a usual occurrence on Antarctica. However, after the 8.8-magnitude earthquake that hit C
August 12, 2014
Meteo-France is reporting an unusually cold month of June at their station base Dumont d'Urville located in Adélie Land (Terre Adélie), Antarctica. They recorded an average temperature of -22.4° C throughout June, which is 6.6&d
July 14, 2014
An international team of researchers has, for the first time, identified an avian influenza virus in a group of Adélie penguins from Antarctica. The virus, found to be unlike any other circulating avian flu, is described in a study published this week in mBi
May 06, 2014
Parts of ancient Antarctica were as warm as today's California coast, and polar regions of the southern Pacific Ocean registered 21st-century Florida heat, according to scientists using a new way to measure past temperatures.The findings, published the week of A
April 22, 2014
An international team of researchers has found evidence that the steam and heat from volcanoes and heated rocks allowed many species of plants and animals to survive past ice ages, helping scientists understand how species respond to climate change. The research
March 11, 2014
ESA’s CryoSat satellite has found a vast crater in Antarctica’s icy surface for which scientists believe was left behind when a lake lying under about 3 km of ice suddenly drained. The study, published recently in Geophysical Research Letters,
July 02, 2013
Scientists at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have released the most detailed map yet of Antarctica’s landmass that allows scientists to better analyse the bed below the Antarctic ice sheet. Bedmap2 reveals a landscape of mountain ranges and plains
March 21, 2013
Penn State geoscientists made analysis of small, repeating earthquakes in an Antarctic ice sheet. They point that it may lead to an understanding of glacial movement and also shed light on stick slip earthquakes like those on the San Andreas fault or in
August 31, 2012
Melting glaciers can alter Earth's gravity field, scientists have found, a discovery that is shedding light on when Greenland and Antarctica began heavily melting. Knowing the timing of this melting could help climate scientists make better estimates of the potential
August 17, 2011
In a study to be published in the April 21st issue of Science magazine, researchers at Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science report their findings that the ozone hole, which is located over the South Pole, has affected the entire circulation
April 27, 2011
British researchers say the discovery of deep-sea volcanic vents in the Antarctic’s Southern Ocean suggests they’re more common than previously thought. Deep-sea vents are hot springs on the seafloor, where mineral-rich water nourishes colonies of
February 15, 2011