Latest Antarctica Stories
NASA and the National Science Foundation launched a scientific balloon on Monday, Dec. 20, to study the effects of cosmic rays on Earth. It was the first of five scientific balloons scheduled to launch from Antarctica in December.The Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM VI) experiment was designed and built at the University of Maryland. CREAM VI is investigating high-energy cosmic-ray particles that originated from distant supernovae explosions in the Milky Way and reached Earth.Currently,...
Scientists have previously shown that West Antarctica is losing ice, but how that ice is lost remained unclear. Now, using data from Earth observing satellites and airborne science missions, scientists are closing in on ice loss culprits above and below the ice.The findings, presented Dec. 15 at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco, Calif., are expected to improve predictions of sea level rise.Time Not Healing Glacial WoundsA new analysis by Ted Scambos, a...
Icebergs apparently head off to South Georgia when they are going to die.The blocks of ice break off Antarctica and get swept towards the Atlantic and then ground on the shallow continental shelf that surrounds the 105-mile long island. They dump billions of tons of freshwater into the local marine environment. U.K. scientists say that the giants have quite dramatic impacts, even altering the food webs for South Georgia's animals. "The scale of some these icebergs is something...
A British expedition to Antarctica said that it has succeeded in establishing a new record for the fastest land crossing of the southernmost continent. The Moon Regan Transantarctic Expedition said that the team completed the crossing in under 13 days, smashing all previous records. The total distance covered was 1209 miles in 303 hours. The team set off from the Union Glacier airstrip on November 25 and arrived on the Ross Ice Shelf earlier on Thursday. A statement on the group's website...
Amundsen Sea Polynya International Research Expedition (ASPIRE) Combines Research and EducationIn a unique and complex example of "science diplomacy," teams of U.S. and Swedish scientists are sailing this month aboard two research vessels to study the ecology of the Amundsen Sea, one of the least-explored and most productive bodies in Antarctic waters, and to gauge the potential effects of a changing climate on the Southern Ocean.The joint American and Swedish expedition, involving...
What are you doing for the holidays this winter? Spending time with family and friends?More than a dozen Near Earth Network engineers and support personnel from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and Wallops Flight Facility in Va., will be packing their bags and spending their holidays far away from their families at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, for the austral summer.McMurdo Station is one of three permanent National Science Foundation (NSF) stations in Antarctica. At...
NASA will hold a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EST on Monday, Nov. 15, from Punta Arenas, Chile, to discuss the agency's Operation IceBridge. Researchers are using seven instruments aboard NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory to map Antarctic ice surfaces and the features hidden below. The data are critical for understanding the dynamics of ice in West Antarctica and its impact on sea-level rise.During the briefing, IceBridge scientists will provide an overview of the multi-year mission and an...
Invasions of voracious predatory crabs due to global warming could threaten the unique continental-shelf ecosystems of Antarctica, according to newly published findings."King crabs are ecologically important predators and form the basis of economically significant commercial fisheries," said Dr Sven Thatje, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science (SOES), which is based at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton.Thatje and graduate...
An Indian mission leader said Saturday that the country will have its first scientific expedition to the South Pole on Monday to analyze environmental changes in the frozen continent over the past 1,000 years. Rasik Ravindra, head of the National Center for Antarctic and Ocean Research, is going to lead the team of seven Indian scientists on the 40-day expedition from an Indian research base in the Antarctic to the South Pole. "No one has taken the route we will be taking to the South...
Gravity field satellites observe for the first time the fluctuations of ice mass of the Antarctic ice sheet due to El NinoThe change in the ice mass covering Antarctica is a critical factor in global climate events. Scientists at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences have now found that the year by year mass variations in the western Antarctic are mainly attributable to fluctuations in precipitation, which are controlled significantly by the climate phenomenon El Nino. They examined...
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...
