Latest Antarctica Stories
New research by teams of Australian and US scientists has found there has been a massive reduction in the amount of Antarctic Bottom Water found off the coast of Antarctica. Comparing detailed measurements taken during the Australian Antarctic program's 2012 Southern Ocean marine science voyage to historical data dating back to 1970, scientists estimate there has been as much as a 60 per cent reduction in the volume of Antarctic Bottom Water, the cold dense water that drives global ocean...
Using statistical tool, researchers are able to track where the melting that contributes to sea level rise happens It was used to help Apollo astronauts navigate in space, and has since been applied to problems as diverse as economics and weather forecasting, but Harvard scientists are now using a powerful statistical tool to not only track sea level rise over time, but to determine where the water causing the rise is coming from. As described in an April 23 paper in the Proceedings of...
Brett Smith for Redorbit.com A joint team of UK and Australian researchers has found that two separate groups of Antarctic octopuses, from the Ross and Weddell seas on different sides of the continent, are almost genetically identical. This suggests that the two seas, which are now separated by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, were once joined together, possibly a result of the partial collapse of the continental ice sheet. Researchers analyzed the genes of 450 Turquet's octopuses...
Scientists report in the journal Nature that an Antarctic ice sheet may start to melt rapidly in this century. The finding, made by climate researchers of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association, refute a widely believed theory that ice shelves in the Weddell Sea would not be affected by global warming due to the peripheral location of the sea. "The Weddell Sea was not really on the screen because we all thought that unlike the Amundsen...
Lee Rannals for RedOrbit.com [ Watch the Video ] An international team of scientists reported in the journal Nature on Thursday that warm ocean currents are the culprit behind recent ice loss in Antarctica. The team, lead by British Antarctic Survey, used 4.5 million measurements made by a laser instrument mounted on NASA's ICESat satellite to map the changing thickness of Antarctica's floating ice shelves. Of the 54 ice shelves they mapped, they revealed that 20 are melting...
WASHINGTON, April 25, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Warm ocean currents attacking the underside of ice shelves are the dominant cause of recent ice loss from Antarctica, a new study using measurements from NASA's Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) revealed. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) An international team of scientists used a combination of satellite measurements and models to differentiate between the two known causes of melting...
SEATTLE, April 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Guests looking for vibrant ports of call, historical adventures and an extreme range of climates can chart a southerly course to South America aboard three Holland America Line ships come fall 2012. ms Veendam, ms Maasdam and ms Prinsendam head to South America on a series of cruise expeditions featuring exceptional scenic cruising around the continent. The popular itineraries range from 13 to 68 days and include a new 49-day extended,...
Journal demonstrates novel procedure in Antarcitca Lake Bonney in Antarctica is perennially covered in ice. It is exposed to severe environmental stresses, including minimal nutrients, low temperatures, extreme shade, and, during the winter, 24-hour darkness. But, for the single-celled organisms that live there, the lake is home. To study them, Dr. Rachel Morgan-Kiss from the University of Miami, Ohio, and her team went to Antarctica to sample the ice-covered lake. The article describing...
Thanks to new technology, a study reveals there to be twice as many emperor penguins in Antarctica than had previously been estimated. The study will be used as a benchmark to understand the effects climate change is having on these flightless birds. Published this week in the journal PLoS ONE, an international team of scientists reports how they used a Very High Resolution (VHR) satellite images to estimate the size of the emperor penguin communities. In order to distinguish the birds...
Scientists working on an ongoing study investigating the impact of climate change on various ecosystems have revealed that habitants dependent upon areas that typically experience ice and snow during the winter months are the most threatened by increasing global temperatures. The finding comes after more than three decades worth of study as part of the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network, a National Science Foundation (NSF) initiative that features more than 1800 scientists and...
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...
