Antarctica and Greenland are shedding their ice sheets at record rates. The warming of the ocean waters is essentially causing the ice sheets to self-destruct and start to collapse. With this ice melting the sea levels may rise to about 6 inches by the year 2100 which is estimated to be more than previously predicted. Antarctica is suggested to be […]
Read more
Just before Christmas… November 1915, while camping on the thawing ice of the Weddell Sea, Shackleton and his men saw their ship, Endurance, going down into the waters of this sea. “She’s going, boys!” Shackleton shouted the evening of November 21, 1915. “She went down bows first, her stern raised in the air. She then gave one quick dive and […]
Read more
Research shows there may be an entire world underneath Antarctica’s ice-free Dry Valleys, which on the surface may seem hostile to life. Below the surface lies rivers of liquid salt water which flow into subsurface lakes, every drop of which could be swarming with microbial life. One of Antarctica’s most unique features, the briny, rusty-red colored Blood Falls, could possibly […]
Read more
The waters off the west coast of Antarctica has started to warm up over the past 50 years. The temperature has risen about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit, warmer than the average water temperature worldwide. It has reached the temperature of 34 degrees which is warm enough for king crab to survive. Normally the king crab live on the continental slopes and […]
Read more
Researchers from Australia, Denmark, Germany, Norway, United Kingdom, and the United States conducted lead concentration measurements of sixteen ice core samples, and found that industrial air pollution has persisted Antarctica since its arrival there in 1889 and remains significant in the current century. Their study was published in Scientific Reports on July 28, and covered in Nevada‘s Review journal. Lead […]
Read more
In 2016, a Canadian novelist, Craig Russell — who is also a lawyer and a theater director in Manitoba — wrote an environmental cli-fi thriller titled “Fragment” about a major calving event along the ice shelf of Antarctica. The Yale Climate Connections website recently recommended the novel, published by Thistledown Press as a good summer read. Ironically, scientists in Antarctica are […]
Read more
According to a new study by Nasa, Antarctica’s Larsen B ice-shelf is on course to completely disintegrate within the next five years. Studies show that the 10,000-year-old ice shelf, after partially collapsing in 2002, is “quickly weakening.” “These are warning signs that the remnant is disintegrating,” said Ala Khazendar of Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. “Although it’s […]
Read more
Antarctica’s Ancient Fossils Deep beneath the ice and snow of Antarctica, a hidden world of prehistoric creatures is being uncovered, offering scientists a glimpse into an era when the now-frozen continent was teeming with life. Recent fossil discoveries suggest that Antarctica was once a lush, temperate land home to dinosaurs, enormous amphibians, and unique plant life. Fossils Tell a Different […]
Read more
Back in March 2018 an extraordinary expedition took place. The Oyster 72 Katharsis II sailed below the 62°S round Antarctica. During the trip the weather didn’t help with all its fog and snow it made it very difficult to sail. Icebergs made their appearance when least expected and looked as though they were disintegrating. With the wind blowing at times […]
Read more
European researchers have once again warned that the thinning of the Antarctic ice shelf means that the flow of glaciers on the frozen continent could accelerate, with a consequent rise in sea levels. They examine, in two separate studies, the increasingly precarious state of some of the ice shelf. When the shelf, consisting of ice floating on the ocean, melts, […]
Read more