Latest East Antarctica Stories
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...
Researchers funded by the National Science Foundation may have finally found how Antarctica’s Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains were formed, a conundrum that has plagued scientists since they were first discovered in 1958. The international team of scientists explored the subglacial mountain range -- buried under nearly 10,000 feet of ice -- during the International Polar Year (2007-2009) by using two twin-engine aircraft equipped with ice penetrating radar, gravity meters and...
Scientists from the U.S., U.K. and Australia have used ice-penetrating radar to create the first high- resolution topographic map of one of the last uncharted regions of Earth, the Aurora Subglacial Basin, an immense ice-buried lowland in East Antarctica larger than Texas. The map reveals some of the largest fjords or ice cut channels on Earth, providing important insights into the history of ice in Antarctica. The data will also help computer modelers improve their simulations of the past...
Iconic dome at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station successfully deconstructed; sections may be reassembled at new Navy museumAfter more than three decades of service to researchers and staff stationed at the bottom of the world, the dome at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station was deconstructed this austral summer.The dome provided a platform for countless scientific discoveries in astronomy, physics, climatology, and other fields, and it also provided a home away from home for the station's...
According to scientists on Sunday, a drought that has been ongoing in the southwestern region of Australia for more than 30 years has been linked to higher snowfall in East Antarctica, a phenomenon that may be tied to global warming. The southwestern drought, where rainfall has declined 15 to 20 percent in recent years, is very unusual when compared to normal activity over the past 750 years, researchers Tas van Ommen and Vin Morgan of the Australian Antarctic Division told AFP. In a report...
New research by scientists in Britain and China reveals evidence of how the East Antarctic ice sheet initially formed.The work provides a snapshot of terrain that has lain hidden miles beneath the ice for millions of years, when rivers ran through mountain valleys that were oddly similar to the modern European Alps.The scientists used radar to map an area of the Gamburtsev mountains, believed to be where the ice originated. The region would have been cold enough to support the formation of...
Scientists said on Tuesday that Antarctica's ice is covering up jagged mountains the size of the Alps, providing new clues about the vast ice sheet that will raise world sea levels if even a fraction of it melts, Reuters reported.First detected by Russian scientists 50 years ago at the heart of the East Antarctic ice sheet using radar and gravity sensors, the experts made the first detailed maps of the Gamburtsev subglacial mountains.Fausto Ferraccioli, a geophysicist at the British Antarctic...
Researchers are preparing to explore an Antarctic mountain range that has never been seen before.The Gamburtsevs match the Alps in scale but no one has ever seen them because they are covered by up to 4km of ice.Now, researchers plan to use aircraft and seismic studies to map the mountain range.The U.S.-led multinational team of scientists from six nations is setting out on this deep-field survey to discover how such a massif could have formed and persisted in the middle of Antarctica. The...
A new robotic observatory at the highest point of the Antarctic Plateau will continuously survey the skies on its own for almost a year. The coldest and driest place on Earth makes an ideal location for stargazing without much in the way of clouds or bad weather — not to mention Antarctica's four months of complete darkness. "We're taking 10-second exposures of the sky for four months," said Lifan Wang, a Texas A&M astrophysicist who compared the hoped-for final results...
A new robotic observatory at the highest point of the Antarctic Plateau will continuously survey the skies on its own for almost a year.The coldest and driest place on Earth makes an ideal location for stargazing without much in the way of clouds or bad weather "” not to mention Antarctica's four months of complete darkness."We're taking 10-second exposures of the sky for four months," said Lifan Wang, a Texas A&M astrophysicist who compared the hoped-for final results with...
