Latest Antarctica Stories
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Last Friday (Mar 8) headlines popped up everywhere reporting that Russian scientists had found initial evidence of a new bacterial life form pulled up from the depths of Antarctica’s largest subglacial body of water, Lake Vostok. The discovery was viewed as extraordinary, and may have sealed the deal for Russia becoming the first country to discover a new species of bacteria in such an extreme location. However, new claims are...
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Samples taken from an underground lake in Antarctica last January contain a new life form previously unknown to science, according to researchers who are in charge of studying the returned samples. The team said they have discovered a bacterium that has been sealed off for more than a million years in the depths of what is now known as Lake Vostok. The scientists, led by Sergei Bulat of the genetics laboratory at the Saint...
University of Arizona Antarctica's topography began changing from flat to fjord-filled starting about 34 million years ago, according to a new report from a University of Arizona-led team of geoscientists. Knowing when Antarctica's topography started shifting from a flat landscape to one with glaciers, fjords and mountains is important for modeling how the Antarctic ice sheet affects global climate and sea-level rise. Although radar surveys have revealed a rugged alpine landscape...
National Science Foundation A century after Western explorers first crossed the dangerous landscapes of the Arctic and Antarctic, researchers funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) have successfully deployed a self-guided robot that uses ground-penetrating radar to map deadly crevasses hidden in ice-covered terrains. Deployment of the robot--dubbed Yeti--could make Arctic and Antarctic explorations safer by revealing unseen fissures buried beneath ice and snow that could...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online NASA is best known for its explorations away from this planet, but the US space agency has a whole other program aimed at investigating the depths of this planet. One NASA researcher from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California joined up with an international Antarctic expedition last month to try and explore an unexplored aquatic environment on Earth. Alberto Behar used a small robotic sub about the size of a baseball...
[WATCH VIDEO: Cold Journey Team - Not Going Anywhere] Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online An ambitious expedition to become the first human to walk across Antarctica during the winter has ended for one brave adventurer. Sixty-eight-year-old Sir Ranulph “Ran” Fiennes, the “World’s Greatest Living Explorer,” as dubbed by Guinness World Records, has bowed out of his bid to walk more than 2,000 miles across the frozen wasteland due to injury. The BBC...
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online A newly-developed National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) climate model predicts that increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) levels will lead to less snowfall in most areas of the world – including the United States – over the next 100 years. In fact, research conducted by Sarah Kapnick of the Princeton University Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (AOS) program and Thomas Delworth, a senior physical scientist at the...
BOSTON, Feb. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 20 runners are expected to reach their goal of completing marathons on all seven continents at the 14(th) Antarctica Marathon on March 7, announced Boston-based Marathon Tours & Travel, the event and expedition organizer. Also known as "The Last Marathon," the Antarctica Marathon is held annually on King George Island, located off the Antarctic Peninsula in Antarctica - the coldest, windiest and most remote continent on Earth....
Utilizing conductive polymer self-regulating technology, advanced water pipe freeze protection systems developed and manufactured by Canadian owned and operated Heat-Line (http://www.heatline.com) are now being used in Antarctica to keep pipes from freezing. Carnarvon, ON (PRWEB) February 12, 2013 Heat-Line (http://www.heatline.com), a Canadian owned developer and manufacturer of innovative freeze protection solutions for water pipes and water systems, has recently announced that their...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online According to satellite data, the most recent hole in the ozone layer measured over Antarctica was the smallest it has been in ten years. Other long-term research studies also indicate that the Earth's ozone layer seems to be on the mend thanks to international agreements to protect this vital layer of the atmosphere. Continuing the work started by ERS-2 and Envisat satellites, imaging from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) MetOp...
Latest Antarctica Reference Libraries
Antarctica is the Earths southernmost continent; it contains the geographic South Pole. It’s situated in the Antarctic area of the Southern Hemisphere, almost completely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is bordered by the Southern Ocean. It’s the fifth-largest continent at 5.4 million sq miles. On average, it is the driest, coldest, and windiest continent as well as having the highest average elevation of all the continents. Considered a desert, the annual precipitation is only 8...
The Ross seal (Ommatophoca rossii) is a true seal in the Phocidae family, and can only be found on pack ice in Antarctica. This species was formally described by James Clark Ross in 1841, during his British Antarctic Expedition. It is very uncommon to see in its range and rarely leaves the pack ice, with stray individuals occurring off southeast Australia or sub-Antarctic islands. The Ross seal can reach an average length between 5.5 and 6.9 feet, although some females can reach up to 8.2...
The Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) is a large true seal in the Lobodontini tribe. It is native to Antarctica, with its range consisting of a large “ring” that surrounds Antarctica. This seal will spend most of its time in the water instead of on land. The Weddell seal appears on the IUCN Red List with a conservation status of “Least Concern”. It is estimated this seal numbers over 800,000 individuals in the wild. First discovered in 1820s by a British sealing captain...
The Antarctic Silverfish, (Pleuragramma antarcticum), is a member of the Notothenioidei family of fish. It is widely distributed around the Antarctic, but has largely disappeared from the western side of the northern Antarctic Peninsula based on 2010 research funded by the National Science Foundation. It is also found throughout the Southern Ocean. It grows to an average size of 6 inches, but has been known to reach lengths of up to 10 inches. It is usually pink with a silver tint, and...
Cryolophosaurus, meaning "cold crest lizard", is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Early Jurassic Period (Pliensbachian Age). It is known from the Hanson Formation (previously known as the Upper Falla Formation). It was discovered by paleontologist Dr. William Hammer in 1991. It was the first carnivorous dinosaur to be discovered in Antarctica. It was also the first dinosaur from Antarctica to be officially named. Dr. William Hammer and his team unearthed the dinosaur during the...
