Latest Antarctic ice sheet Stories

Antarctica may not be the world's largest landmass -- it's the fifth-largest continent -- but resting on top of that land is the world's largest ice sheet. That ice holds more than 60 percent of Earth's fresh water and carries the potential to significantly raise sea level. The continent is losing ice to the sea, and scientists want to know how much.Antarctica's ice generally flows from the middle of the continent toward the edge, dipping toward the sea before lifting back up and floating....

A robotic yellow submarine that has been launched deep beneath the Pine Island Glacier has helped to solve a mystery about one of Antarctica's fastest-melting glaciers, adding to unease about how climate change may lead to higher world sea levels, scientists reported on Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience. Scientists captured ocean and sea-floor measurements using the robotic submarine, called Autosub. The team found that the glacier was no longer resting on a sub-sea ridge that had...

The poles control much of our global climate. Giant ice sheets in Antarctica behave like mirrors, reflecting the sun's energy and moderating the world's temperatures. The waxing and waning of these ice sheets contribute to changes in sea level and affect ocean circulation, which regulates our climate by transporting heat around the planet.Despite their present-day cold temperatures, the poles were not always covered with ice. New climate records recovered from Antarctica during the recent...

Ice shelves are retreating in the southern section of the Antarctic Peninsula due to climate change. This could result in glacier retreat and sea-level rise if warming continues, threatening coastal communities and low-lying islands worldwide.Research by the U.S. Geological Survey is the first to document that every ice front in the southern part of the Antarctic Peninsula has been retreating overall from 1947 to 2009, with the most dramatic changes occurring since 1990. The USGS previously...

The East Antarctic ice sheet, once unaltered by global warming, has swiftly melted since 2006 and could increase sea levels, says a new study.Available in a recent issue of Nature Geoscience, the same research indicates that the West Antarctic ice sheet is also melting rapidly.Scientists are concerned that higher global temperatures could cause a quick collapse of West Antarctica, which has enough frozen water to raise the global ocean watermark by 16 feet.In 2007 the UN Intergovernmental...

New ground measurements made by the West Antarctic GPS Network (WAGN) project, composed of researchers from The University of Texas at Austin, The Ohio State University, and The University of Memphis, suggest the rate of ice loss of the West Antarctic ice sheet has been slightly overestimated."Our work suggests that while West Antarctica is still losing significant amounts of ice, the loss appears to be slightly slower than some recent estimates," said Ian Dalziel, lead principal...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA begins a series of flights Oct. 15 to study changes to Antarctica's sea ice, glaciers and ice sheets. The flights are part of Operation Ice Bridge, a six-year campaign that is the largest airborne survey ever made of ice at Earth's polar regions.(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Researchers will work from NASA's DC-8, an airborne laboratory equipped with laser mapping instruments, ice-penetrating radar and gravity...

NASA will hold a media teleconference at 11:30 a.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 8, to preview the agency's largest airborne research effort ever to study Antarctic ice sheets, ice shelves and sea ice.The flights are part of NASA's Operation Ice Bridge, a six-year airborne campaign to each of Earth's polar regions that will extend and expand NASA's multi-year record of space-based observations of ice conditions. Advancing scientific understanding of the behavior of polar ice is needed to improve...

U.S. scientists say a 24-foot-long robotic submarine will be used in a multimillion-dollar, five-year study of melting on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Northern Illinois University said its robotic submarine will be lowered through more than a half mile of ice into ocean water in the study that involves nine U.S. institutions. Researchers said the submarine will collapse to a width of only two feet, allowing it to be lowered through a drill hole melted in the ice. The sub is designed to...

Researchers have confirmed for the first time a link between declining levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and the formation of Antarctic ice caps some 34 million years ago.The results of the major research study support computer climate models that predict both the creation of ice sheets when CO2 levels fall and the melting of ice caps when CO2 levels rise."Our study is the first to provide a direct link between the establishment of an ice sheet on Antarctica and atmospheric...