Latest Poles Stories

Arctic air temperatures were approximately 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit higher in 2011 than the baseline number for the previous three decades, and the region continues to lose ice sheet and glacier mass at a "dramatic" rate, according to a new report released by an international team of scientists Thursday. The 2011 Arctic Report Card, which was compiled by a team of 121 scientists from 14 different countries, measures the status of the area in five different categories: atmosphere, sea ice and...

A new report from a group of multination scientists says that the planet’s Arctic is moving into a warmer phase compared with previous years. And as with most all major environmental changes, there are both winners and losers as temperatures rise. Researchers from 14 nations published the now famous Arctic Report Card on Thursday in which they stated that average air temperatures in the region were significantly elevated in 2011 compared with previous thirty years--on average some 2.5...

Scientists understand that Earth's magnetic field has flipped its polarity many times over the millennia. In other words, if you were alive about 800,000 years ago, and facing what we call north with a magnetic compass in your hand, the needle would point to 'south.' This is because a magnetic compass is calibrated based on Earth's poles. The N-S markings of a compass would be 180 degrees wrong if the polarity of today's magnetic field were reversed. Many doomsday theorists have tried to take...

The UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has issued a new report, the annual World Meteorological Organization Statement on the Status of the Global Climate. The report was released Nov. 29 in Durban, South Africa at an international climate conference. The report states that 2011 was the tenth warmest year on record and the surface temperatures were higher than any previous year with a La Nina event, which has a cooling effect. The report also notes that the incidence of Arctic...

Radiocarbon bomb pulse revelations One hundred years ago, two teams of explorers raced to be the first to reach the South Pole. Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen reached the South Pole on December 14, 1911. Thirty-three days later on 17 January 1912 the Terra Nova Expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott arrived at the Pole in second place. At the same time in East Antarctica, the Australasian Antarctic Expedition led by Douglas Mawson was searching for the South Magnetic Pole. On...

A Cambridge University professor and one of Britain’s top ocean experts says that Arctic sea ice could melt away entirely by 2015, the Telegraph reported on Tuesday. Although the ice would reappear again every winter, its absence during the peak of summer would deprive polar bears of their summer hunting ground, which could put them at risk of extinction, said Professor Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University. The vast mass of sea ice between northern Russia, Canada and Greenland waxes...

[ Watch the Video ] Geologist John Goodge looks for clues about Antarctica's past in the 2 percent of the continent that is not covered in ice! The University of Minnesota-Duluth professor has been visiting Antarctica since 1985, finding and studying rocks that help tell the story of how this desolate continent has formed and changed over time. In late 2010 and early 2011, he spent several weeks in the field, with other scientists, visiting a dozen sites along 1,200 miles of...

An Antarctic lake hidden under 1.8 miles of ice in the western region of the continent could reveal what life on Earth looked like a million years ago and could narrow down the search for extraterrestrial life, as well as give scientists clues to future climate impacts, according to a British expedition taking up the study. Expedition members will use hot water to melt down through the nearly 2-mile-thick ice to reach Lake Ellsworth, which has been isolated from the outside world for more...

[ Watch the Video ] Last month the extent of sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean declined to the second-lowest extent on record. Satellite data from NASA and the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado in Boulder showed that the summertime sea ice cover narrowly avoided a new record low. The Arctic ice cap grows each winter as the sun sets for several months and shrinks each summer as the sun rises higher in the northern sky. Each year the...

Independent Review Lists Recommendations to Guide Conservation, Drilling Decisions WASHINGTON, Sept. 26, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Pew Environment Group and Ocean Conservancy released a white paper today recommending concrete steps the Obama administration should take to address science gaps and inform conservation and development decisions in America's Arctic Ocean. The white paper is the work of 14 scientists, all experts in Arctic marine ecosystems. "When it comes to the...