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News articles on Antarctica

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Mongabay.com news articles on antarctica in blog format. Updated regularly.

Ozone-hole recovery may spur Antarctic warming
(4/24/2008) A full recovery of the stratospheric ozone hole could strongly modify climate change in the Southern Hemisphere and possibly amplify warming of the Antarctic continent, a new study finds.


Geoengineering solution to global warming could destroy the ozone layer
(4/24/2008) A proposed plan to fight global warming by injecting sulfate particles into Earth's upper atmosphere could damage the ozone layer over the Arctic and Antarctic, report researchers writing in the journal Science.


Swan finds love with paddleboat
(3/25/2008) In a bizarre story out of Muenster, Germany, a black swam will be reunited with its companion — a paddleboat shaped like an outsized white swan, reports the Associated Press.


Photos: Warming triggers massive Antarctic ice shelf collapse
(3/25/2008) Satellites have captured the collapse of a massive ice shelf in Antarctica. At 160 square miles the area of collapsed ice was seven times the size of Manhattan. Scientists say the collapse is the beginning of a "runaway" disintegration of the 13,680 square kilometer (5,282 square mile) Wilkins Ice Shelf on the southwest Antarctic Peninsula. The region has experienced the largest temperature increase on the planet, rising by 0.5 degree Celsius (0.9 degree Fahrenheit) per decade over the past 50 years.


Giant sea creatures discovered in Antarctica
(3/21/2008) An eight week long survey of New Zealand's Antarctic waters has turned up giant creatures including jellyfish with 12-foot tentacles and 2-foot-wide starfish, as well as up to eight previously undiscovered species of mollusc, reports the Associated Press (A.P.).


Hibernating fish discovered in the Antarctic
(3/5/2008) Scientists have discovered a fish that exhibits hibernation-like behavior in the icy waters of the Antarctic.


Deep-sea krill discovered in Antarctica
(2/25/2008) Antarctic krill have been found living at depths up to 3000 meters near the Antarctic Peninsula, a finding that changes scientists' understanding of a fundamental part of the ocean food chain. Previously researchers believed that krill lived only in the upper ocean.


Photos of bizarre creatures discovered in Antarctica
(2/19/2008) Researchers aboard the Aurora Australis, an Australian vessel, have discovered a trove of strange creatures on the sea floor near East Antarctica.


Warming could bring sharks to Antarctica with devastating ecological consequences
(2/15/2008) Global warming could make the waters around Antarctica hospitable to sharks for the first time in 40 million years. Their return could have devastating ecological consequences report researchers from the University of Rhode Island.


Global warming puts penguins at risk of extinction
(2/11/2008) Climate change could put the long-term survival of sub-Antarctic King Penguins at risk by reducing the availability of prey, reports a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


Climate system approaching 9 critical tipping points
(2/4/2008) Earth is approaching and may pass nine important climate tipping points this century, according to research published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).


Scientists: cut emissions now to avoid climate tipping point
(12/14/2007) Countries need to act soon to cut carbon dioxide emissions if the worst impacts of global warming are to be avoided, warned a panel of scientists speaking Thursday at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.


NASA releases high-resolution map of Antarctica
(11/27/2007) A team of researchers from NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Science Foundation and the British Antarctic Survey today unveiled a high resolution, true-color map of Antarctica. The map is expected to help scientists better understand changes occurring on the icy continent.


Ozone Hole makes Early Appearance in 2007
(8/28/2007) The Antarctic ozone hole was discovered in 1985 by British scientists Joseph Farman, Brian Gardiner, and Jonathan Shanklin of the British Antarctic Survey. Though called a hole, it is rather a location in the ozone shield -- a layer that keeps ultra-violet rays from affecting us directly -- that is substantially lacking in ozone concentration.


Melting glaciers and ice cap will drive sea level rise
(7/19/2007) Melting glaciers and ice caps will contribute more to global sea level rise this century than the melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, reports a study published in the current issue of Science.


Melting Antarctic icebergs help increase biodiversity, slow climate change
(6/21/2007) Icebergs breaking off Antarctica are unexpected hotspots of biological productivity and have a surprising role in climate change, reports a new study published in the journal Science.


Glaciers speed up due to global warming
(6/5/2007) Antarctic glaciers are moving faster due to global warming, reports the British Antarctic Survey.


California-sized area of snow melt spotted in Antarctica
(5/16/2007) NASA has found clear evidence of a California-sized area of snow melting in west Antarctica in January 2005 in response to warm temperatures.


Deep-sea creatures discovered near the Antarctic
(5/16/2007) Scientists have found hundreds of new marine creatures in the depths of the Weddell Sea near Antarctica, including Carnivorous sponges, free-swimming worms, crustaceans, and mollusks, reports research published in the current issue of the journal Nature.


Can penguins be used as bio-indicators of climate change?
(4/4/2007) Scientists at the University of Birmingham are working to determine whether the king penguin can be used as a bio-indicator for global warming.


Antarctic insects make natual anti-freeze to survive cold
(4/2/2007) Insects in the some of the world's coldest places produce natural anti-freeze that enables them to survive sub-freezing temperatures for months on end accoridng to research repsented at the Society for Experimental Biology's Annual Meeting in Glasgow.


Melting Antarctic glaciers could trigger sea level rise
(3/15/2007) Scientists have identified four melting Antarctic glaciers that could trigger a rapid rise in global sea levels according to a study published in the journal Science.


Melting ice reveals unknown species in Antarctica
(2/26/2007) An expedition to an area of seabed recently exposed by melting ice in Antarctica has discovered several previously unknown species of marine life, including deep sea lilies, gelatinous sea squirts, glass sponges, amphipod crustaceans, and orange starfish. The findings were announced Sunday by the Census of Antarctic Marine Life, a 10-year effort to map the biodiversity of the world's oceans.


Antarctic temperatures are not rising
(2/15/2007) Temperatures in Antarctica are not rising as predicted by many climate models, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco. David Bromwich, researcher with the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University, reports that his work has found no increase in precipitation over Antarctica in the last 50 years. Most climate models predict that precipitation and temperature will increase over Antarctica as the planet warms.


Antarctic Peninsula warming affects penguins, krill
(2/15/2007) While much of Antarctica has cooled over the past decade, a warming trend in the Antarctic Peninsula may indicate what the future holds for the rest of the icy continent's wildlife. Researchers at Ohio State University say that higher temperatures have already forced penguin populations to migrate south and may have reduced the availability of krill that serve as the based of the Antarctic food chain.


Antarctic subglacial lakes plumbed by satellite
(2/15/2007) The discovery of a network of rapidly filling and emptying lakes lying beneath at least two of West Antarctica's ice streams suggests that change in the Antarctic could be more rapid than previously believed, according to a team of scientists writing in Friday's edition of the journal Science.


Climate change caused dramatic changes in Antarctica 14 million years ago
(8/25/2006) Climate change 14 million years ago produced catastrophic drainage of subglacial lakes in Antarctica causing dramatic changes in the continent's landscape according to new research.


Ozone hole recovery slower than expected
(6/29/2006) Scientists from NASA and other agencies have concluded that the ozone hole over the Antarctic will recover around 2068, nearly 20 years later than previously believed. Researchers from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) have developed a new tool, a math-based computer model, to predict the timing of ozone hole recovery. Their findings will be published tomorrow in Geophysical Research Letters.


Antarctic glaciers show Earth's climate system capable of rapid shifts
(5/8/2006) Researchers at Syracuse University have determined that glaciers once covered a much larger area of Antarctica than originally thought, suggesting that Earth's climate system is capable of rapid shifts. Looking at sediments from marine deposits and rock sources on Seymour Island, Syracuse University Professors Linda C. Ivany and Scott D. Samson along with colleagues at the University of Leuven in Belgium and Hamilton College found evidence that glaciers once covered extensive parts of the West Antarctica ice sheet. Previously, scientists had assumed that glaciers were confined to the eastern part of Antarctica, where the biggest ice sheet is today. The findings are significant because they suggest that the climatic response to the drop in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere 34 million years ago was greater than initially believed.


Greenhouse gases hit record in 2005
(5/1/2006) Atmospheric levels of gases believed to be fueling global warming continued to climb in 2005 according to analysis released by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The agency said its index of greenhouse gases -- the Annual Greenhouse Gas Index or AGGI -- showed an increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide but a leveling off of methane, and a decline in two chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), gases that contribute to the hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica. NOAA reports that overall, the AGGI "shows a continuing, steady rise in the amount of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere."


Long-term cooling driven by Antarctica, not glaciers in Northern Hemisphere
(4/10/2006) Researchers from Brown University have reconstructed 5-million years of climate using tiny marine fossils found in mud off the coast of South America. The climate record unearthed by the Brown team is the longest continuous record of ocean temperatures on Earth.


Air above Antarctica warming rapidly
(3/30/2006) Winter air temperatures over Antarctica have risen by more than 2C in the last 30 years, according to a study by scientists from the British Antarctic Survey. The increase Antarctic temperature is three times larger than that observed globally over the same time period.


Sea levels to rise 20 feet if ice melting trend continues
(3/23/2006) New research says if current warming trends continue, the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are on track to melt sooner than previously thought, leading to a global sea level rise of at least 20 feet.


Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are melting find new studies
(3/17/2006) Scientists have confirmed that climate warming is changing how much water remains locked in the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, according to an article published in the Journal of Glaciology.


Antarctica is melting, finds study
(3/5/2006) The Antarctic ice sheet continues to shrink according to a NASA study released last week.


Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels closely correlated with global temperatures
(11/28/2005) Studying ice cores from Antarctica, scientists of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research extended the record of historic concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere by 250,000 years. The team found a close correlation between atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and global temperatures. Over the past 650,000 years, low greenhouse gas concentrations have been associated with cooler conditions. The current concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, at 380 parts-per-million, is the highest level recorded over the past 650,000 years.


Singing iceberg discovered in Antarctica
(11/25/2005) Scientists believe they have found a singing iceberg in Antarctica, according to research published in Science on Friday.


Carbon dioxide at highest level in 650,000 years
(11/24/2005) Carbon dioxide levels are now 27 percent higher than at any point in the last 650,000 years, according to research into Antarctic ice cores published on Thursday in Science.


Climate change boosts visitors to Alaska, Antarctica
(10/4/2005) A new advertising campaign launched Monday urges tourists to visit Alaska before they die. The billboards posted in Seattle, Washington; Los Angeles, California; and Minneapolis, Minnesota, show an Alaska license plate that reads "Alaska B4UDIE" -- or Alaska, before you die.


Number of tourists visiting Antarctica surges over past decade
(9/15/2005) The number of sightseers visiting Antarctica has surged 308 percent since 1992 according to figures released in a report by the UN. For the 2004-2005 year, more than 27,000 people visited the icy continent.



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