Antarctica on EARTH Magazine

Antarctic rift was active more recently than thought

Thu, 08 Nov 2018 10:54:19 -0500

The West Antarctic Rift system split the continent into two plates for 200 million years before becoming inactive about 11 million years ago, after which the two plates drifted back together. The rift is responsible for the volcanoes that still exist on Antarctica. Credit: K. Cantner, AGI.

Studying Antarctica’s geology is difficult because of the continent’s remote location and extreme weather, and because most of it is buried under kilometers of ice. More than 100 volcanoes hint at the White Continent’s fiery history, however. Scientists have long known that Antarctica was once split into two plates along the West Antarctic Rift system. A new study provides information about when this rift system was last active, and the findings have implications for calculating plate tectonic movements around the planet.

Globe-trotting kelp set new world record

Fri, 12 Oct 2018 13:03:55 -0400

Kelp grows in underwater forests in shallow regions of temperate, tropical and polar oceans. Air bladders in the leaves enable the seaweed to travel vast distances on currents across oceans. Credit: public domain.

When marine biologist Erasmo Macaya, from University of Concepción in Chile, found a piece of kelp washed up on a beach in Antarctica, he suspected the scrap of seaweed had come a long way.

First Antarctic tetrapods

Mon, 10 Sep 2018 11:35:49 -0400

This illustration depicts ancient Antarctic tetrapods in their aquatic habitats. Tutusius is to the right; Umzantsia is to the left. Credit: Maggie Newman.

Tetrapods include all those animals with four limbs. Humans are tetrapods, as are dogs and dinosaurs and salamanders. The earliest tetrapods evolved on land from fish with bony fins during the Devonian Period between about 420 million and 359 million years ago. Until now, fossils of the earliest four-legged forms were only known from equatorial regions, but paleontologists working in South Africa now report the discovery of fossil tetrapods that lived in the Late Devonian Antarctic.

Down to Earth With: Lucy McFadden

Wed, 23 May 2018 12:52:16 -0400

Lucy McFadden. Credit: Courtesy of Lucy McFadden

Not many people can say they have an asteroid named after them. But Lucy McFadden, a self-described small planetary objects junkie, can. For nearly 40 years, McFadden has woven her two loves — astronomy and geology — into a career in planetary geology. She has mapped craters on Mercury, participated on NASA missions to comets, and collected meteorites in Antarctica, all in the interest of discovering more about the formation of our solar system.

Ice (Re)Cap: May 2018

Tue, 10 Apr 2018 12:04:52 -0400

Researchers studying soil cores from Alaska estimate that soils in Northern Hemisphere permafrost regions contain far more mercury than all other soils around the world combined. Credit: National Park Service/C. Ciancibelli.

From Antarctica to the Arctic; from polar caps, permafrost and glaciers to ocean-rafted sea ice; and from burly bears to cold-loving microbes, fascinating science is found in every nook and crevasse of Earth’s cryosphere, and new findings are announced often. Here are a few of the latest updates.

Globe-trotting bacteria found at both poles

Mon, 19 Mar 2018 14:04:01 -0400

University of Tübingen geoscientist Julia Kleinteich collects water samples in Antarctica. Credit: Daniel Farinotti.

The Arctic and Antarctica, separated by more than 15,000 kilometers, may be geographic opposites but they share many similarities, including their diverse arrays of bacteria and other microscopic life forms. A new study looking at the DNA of bacteria from both poles has found remarkable similarities between the two regions’ bacterial diversity, including some of the same species.

Gyres spin up, currents get muddled

Thu, 08 Mar 2018 11:37:13 -0500

In the Weddell Sea Gyre, one of two clockwise-spinning circulation patterns in the Southern Ocean, warming has accelerated the spinning. Recent research suggests this acceleration — and the warmer, faster-moving Antarctic Circumpolar Currrent and Circumpolar Deepwater that result — may trigger the development of smaller, shorter-lived polynyas like those observed over the past two years. Credit: K. Cantner, AGI.

In addition to polynya formation and warming-induced surface freshening, other factors may also impact open-ocean convection in the Southern Ocean. The warming atmosphere is shifting global climatic zones and their associated wind fields poleward in both hemispheres. In the Weddell Sea Gyre, one of two clockwise-spinning circulation patterns in the Southern Ocean, this shift has resulted in a dramatic increase in wind stress curl (the strength of the wind’s influence on ocean water flow) over the past two years.

Benchmarks: March 29, 1912: Scott's South Pole Journey Ends in Death

Tue, 27 Feb 2018 14:31:07 -0500

This map shows the routes taken by the teams of Roald Amundsen and Capt. Robert F. Scott from their bases on the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf across the Antarctic Plateau to the South Pole in 1911–1912. Credit: Ryan Fogt/American Meteorological Society/BAMS.

The epic tale of the race between Norway and Britain to be the first to reach the South Pole — and its tragic conclusion with the deaths of British team members in February and March 1912 — is well known. But the details of what happened on the ice, of what went wrong for the British expedition, have continued to be discussed and debated since the bodies of Capt. Robert Falcon Scott and his four crewmates were discovered the following summer. Several recent studies on the Antarctic climate and on the questionable behavior of Scott’s second-in-command are casting new light on the outcome of the expedition.

Ice (Re)Cap: March 2018

Tue, 27 Feb 2018 13:27:15 -0500

A new map shows the geothermal heat flux beneath Antarctica in detail. Credit: Martos et al., Geophysical Research Letters, November 2017.

Ice (Re)Cap: November 2017

Wed, 18 Oct 2017 12:21:26 -0400

Jarvis Glacier flows from Mount Silvertip in the eastern Alaska Range. Runoff from mountain glaciers supplies water to streams and recharges aquifers in Alaskan watersheds. Credit: Anna Liljedahl.

Ice (Re)Cap: September 2017

Tue, 15 Aug 2017 14:33:37 -0400

River icings, like this 5-meter-thick one on the Echooka River in Alaska in 1972, are large masses of ice that form each winter in and around rivers across the Arctic. New research suggests river icings in Alaska and Canada are melting earlier in the year. Credit: U.S. Geological Survey.

Ice (Re)Cap: May 2017

Wed, 19 Apr 2017 20:09:22 -0400

Bucking the global trend of glacial retreat, Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand's Southern Alps advanced for much of the period between 1983 and 2008. Credit: Wendy Mann, CC BY 2.0.

Ice (Re)Cap: March 2017

Thu, 16 Feb 2017 11:08:44 -0500

Large, tabular icebergs float in Pine Island Bay, part of the Amundsen Sea off the coast of West Antarctica. Credit: James Smith.

A mysterious first

Fri, 27 Jan 2017 11:46:49 -0500

The first six women to reach the South Pole — on Nov. 12, 1969. From left: Pam Young, Jean Pearson, Terry Tickhill Terrell, Lois Jones, Eileen McSaveney and Kay Lindsay. Credit: U.S. Antarctic Program.

Women sailed around the sub-Antarctic islands well before Caroline Mikkelsen or Ingrid Christensen’s journeys, usually accompanying their sailor husbands. Maori navigators are known to have traveled these waters for centuries. Although Christensen and Mikkelsen are credited with Antarctic firsts, some people think another woman may have come before. In her book “Women on the Ice,” Elizabeth Chipman, an Australian writer who visited and worked in Antarctica in the 1960s and ‘70s, writes of a woman who was shipwrecked on Campbell Island, 700 kilometers south of New Zealand, in 1835. The woman was rescued four years later by two sealing ships that then sailed farther south toward the Antarctic mainland; perhaps those on board got a glimpse of the icy continent. On the way back to England, however, one of the ships was lost at sea and she died. As the woman’s name wasn’t recorded in the log of the surviving ship, her story, and her potential first, is lost to history.

Benchmarks: February 5, 1931 and February 20, 1935: Antarctic firsts for women

Wed, 25 Jan 2017 15:25:20 -0500

Norwegian Ingrid Christensen (left), along with her friend Mathilde Wegger, sitting on the deck of the M/S Thorshavn in 1931. They were the first women on record to see Antarctica on Feb. 5, 1931. Credit: Norwegian Polar Institute.

Norwegian Caroline Mikkelsen was originally credited as the first woman to set foot on Antarctica. On Feb. 20, 1935, she made landfall at the Vestfold Hills in East Antarctica. The distinction was later bestowed to Ingrid Christensen and three companions. Credit: Norwegian Polar Institute.

Wegger with a penguin taken aboard the Thorshavn. Credit: Norwegian Polar Institute.

We can only guess what Caroline Mikkelsen was thinking on Feb. 20, 1935, as she sipped her coffee, resting on a rocky hillside surrounded by the noise and stink of thousands of Adélie penguins. Minutes before, she had become the first woman to set foot in Antarctica and had helped hoist the Norwegian flag into place atop a rock cairn, claiming Norway’s influence in the land. Was she thrilled? Proud? Did she care about the significance of her presence there? We don’t know — little was recorded about the event; and most of what was recorded was lost for decades, resigning the episode, for a time, to footnote status amid the annals of a continent shrouded in mystery and a culture of polar exploration enraptured by the heroic and masculine deeds of the male explorers who had come before.

Mysterious Antarctic algae blown in by high winds

Tue, 20 Dec 2016 21:53:48 -0500

Melting of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet about 3 million years ago may have led to the wind-blown deposition of algae in the middle of the continent. Credit: Reed Scherer, Northern Illinois University.

When fossils of microscopic marine algae called diatoms were discovered high in the Transantarctic Mountains 30 years ago, the mysterious find set off a heated debate about whether Antarctica had thawed enough at some point within the last few million years for the emergence of algae-rich seas in the middle of the continent, or whether the diatoms were blown far inland by wind. Now, a new study links the two hypotheses: Researchers led by Reed Scherer of Northern Illinois University found that the algae were likely deposited by strong winds after substantial ice-sheet melt led to sea-level rise along eastern Antarctica.

Seafloor topography drives Earth's great conveyor belt

Thu, 15 Dec 2016 20:11:00 -0500

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current mostly runs free, connecting the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific ocean basins, but in one place it squeezes through a narrow, deep channel called the Drake Passage, where the topography affects the current. Credit: K. Cantner, AGI.

In the Southern Ocean, the world’s largest current in terms of volume transport — the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) — encircles Antarctica and connects the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific ocean basins, as it flows from west to east. The ACC influences ocean circulation and global climate, as it rises from the deep to interact with the atmosphere. In a new study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, researchers have directly measured how seafloor topography affects the current’s structure — something that had only been theorized previously. Most of Earth’s oceans are bound by land on their eastern and western sides; the Southern Ocean is not. For the most part, the ACC runs free, but in one place, the entire ACC squeezes through a 1,000-kilometer-wide channel roughly 2,500 meters deep between the tip of South America and the Antarctic Peninsula, called the Drake Passage, home to a mountainous mid-ocean ridge.

Down to Earth With: Underwater cave explorer Jill Heinerth

Wed, 30 Nov 2016 13:19:25 -0500

Jill Heinerth enters the cave at Devil's Eye Spring in Florida. Credit: Jill Heinerth, IntoThePlanet.com.

Jill Heinerth has trekked farther into caves than any woman in history, logging more than 7,000 dives across every continent and descending as far as roughly 140 meters underwater — recreational divers only reach depths down to 40 meters. She has dived inside icebergs in Antarctica, beneath the Sahara Desert, and in the turquoise waters of the Bahamas.

Ice (Re)Cap: December 2016

Tue, 15 Nov 2016 18:35:17 -0500

ASKY GPS station of the Greenland Global Positioning System Network. Research relying on this network shows the ground's movement on a regional scale. Credit: Michael Bevis.

Down to Earth With: Volcanologist Kayla Iacovino

Thu, 20 Oct 2016 09:53:21 -0400

Kayla Iacovino stands on the crater rim of Mount Paektu Volcano in China, with a view of North Korea in the background and Lake Chon in the summit crater. Credit: Kayla Iacovino.

When Kayla Iacovino enrolled as a freshman at Arizona State University in 2005, she thought she might become an astronaut. But, after a field trip to outcrops in northern Arizona during her first semester, she became hooked on geology.

Antarctic no place to hide during end-Cretaceous extinction

Tue, 20 Sep 2016 16:13:52 -0400

Artist's rendering of a typical Cretaceous marine environment in Antarctica, including the paperclip-shaped "heteromorphy" ammonite Diplomoceras. Credit: James McKay (jamesmckay.info).

The end-Cretaceous extinction is famous for killing off the dinosaurs, but many other species perished as well. A new study in Nature Communications of marine fossils found in the Antarctic indicates that the extinction event was just as deadly for creatures in the polar regions.

Ice (Re)Cap: August 2016

Tue, 26 Jul 2016 10:03:18 -0400

Landsat data collected between 1984 and 2012 show that much of Canada and Alaska is greening as vegetation expands. Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Cindy Starr.

Iron meteorites likely hidden below Antarctic ice

Thu, 16 Jun 2016 13:33:04 -0400

Antarctica has yielded two-thirds (about 35,000) of all the meteorites that have ever been discovered on Earth. Credit: NASA.

Despite the fact that meteorites fall relatively evenly across the surface of the planet, most meteorites retrieved by humans have come from Antarctica. This is because meteorites are easily buried and preserved in Antarctic ice; over time, the ice melts and exposes the dark-colored fallen rocks for relatively easy recovery on the continent’s white surface. But iron-rich meteorites, common among specimens found in other parts of the planet, are unusually rare in Antarctica. Researchers may now have figured out why.

Ice (Re)Cap: June 2016

Fri, 20 May 2016 13:05:31 -0400

Phosphorus-rich meltwater flows from the Leverett Glacier in southwest Greenland. Credit: Jon Hawkings.

Giant icebergs spur carbon storage in Southern Ocean

Mon, 09 May 2016 15:38:41 -0400

Dozens of giant icebergs are currently floating in the Southern Ocean, with more projected to calve in the coming years. Credit: Patrick Rowe, National Science Foundation.

A new study shows that giant icebergs floating in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica may be playing a larger role in carbon sequestration and Earth’s global carbon cycle than previously thought.

Looking for life in coldest, driest Antarctica

Thu, 21 Apr 2016 16:17:08 -0400

Researchers studying permafrost samples from University Valley in Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys region found no signs of active microbial life. Credit: Jacqueline Goordial.

Antarctica is nicknamed the “White Continent,” but one site — University Valley in the continent’s McMurdo Dry Valleys region — has remained virtually snow-free for more than 150,000 years, making it the coldest, driest desert on Earth. For the past four years, researchers involved in NASA’s ASTEP (Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets) program searched for signs of life in the valley because it is thought to closely resemble the northern polar regions of Mars where the Phoenix spacecraft landed in 2008. In a new study, though, the team reports that it came up empty-handed, confirming that University Valley is indeed one of the least-habitable places on Earth.

Ice (Re)Cap: April 2016

Wed, 13 Apr 2016 17:09:04 -0400

Thawing permafrost in Alaska, which can lead to slope failures like this one along the Noatak River, may increase dramatically this century as air and ground temperatures rise. Credit: Rory Nichols.

Down to Earth With: Glaciologist Ted Scambos

Thu, 10 Mar 2016 18:53:47 -0500

Ted Scambos. Credit: NSIDC, University of Colorado.

As a young boy, Ted Scambos was fascinated by space and technology, and spent many hours watching aircraft take off and land at the Air Force bases where his father, a pilot, was stationed. For his birthday or Christmas, he says he would often ask for a new telescope or a book about the planets. By sixth grade, Scambos had decided to become an astronomer. But by high school, his attention shifted from outer space to chemistry, and he set up an elaborate chemistry set in his parents’ basement. As Scambos’ interests evolved, he gradually realized that although astronomy and chemistry were both very hands-on disciplines at first, the deeper he delved, the more esoteric they became. Instead, he found himself drawn to geology, especially after discovering how much he enjoyed fieldwork.

Ice (Re)Cap: February 2016

Fri, 15 Jan 2016 08:33:28 -0500

Based on a study of New Zealand's Franz Josef Glacier, researchers have developed a novel numerical law to describe glacial erosion rates on Earth. Credit: Frédéric Herman.

Benchmarks: December 1, 1959: Antarctic Treaty Signed

Tue, 01 Sep 2015 11:23:01 -0400

A victory for peace and science

In 1911, Roald Amundsen was the first person to mark the South Pole. Credit: Steve nicklas/noS, nGS (noAA).

Science trumps all in Antarctica. For the past 50 years, Antarctica has remained a military-free, globally shared continent, dedicated to peace and scientific advancement, thanks to the Antarctica Treaty.

Beached iceberg alters Antarctic marine communities

Mon, 20 Jul 2015 17:27:14 -0400

While the extent of sea ice in the Arctic has fallen substantially over the last several decades, the total area covered by sea ice around Antarctica has grown, with increases in some regions outweighing declines in others. This means that some parts of the Southern Ocean that were once ice-free and exposed to sunlight are being covered over, darkening the waters below and causing shifts in local ecosystems.

Ice (Re) Cap: August 2015

Fri, 17 Jul 2015 09:47:48 -0400

An eerie red ooze, rich in microbes and iron oxides (hence the color), issues from Blood Falls at the toe of Antarctica's Taylor Glacier. Credit: National Science Foundation/Peter Rejcek.

Ice (Re) Cap: April 2015

Mon, 09 Mar 2015 12:17:20 -0400

The amazing minerals of the Larsemann Hills

Mon, 29 Dec 2014 13:41:00 -0500

Four minerals were discovered on Stornes Peninsula in the Larsemann Hills of East Antarctica based on fieldwork there from 2003 to 2004. In part because of these minerals and other rare boron and phosphate minerals found in this pristine region, Stornes Peninsula is now protected as an Antarctic Specially Protected Area — the highest level of environmental protection in Antarctica. Below are some details about these special minerals.

Protecting the mineral treasures of Antarctica's Larsemann Hills

Mon, 29 Dec 2014 12:38:44 -0500

It was late November 2003 and not quite summer in Antarctica. As the Squirrel helicopter lifted off after delivering its last load, we set about putting up our two tents and making camp on Stornes Peninsula. The peninsula, which would serve as our home and base for fieldwork for the next two months, is part of the Larsemann Hills, a 40-square-kilometer region of rocky islands and promontories on the eastern shore of Prydz Bay, some 120 kilometers southwest of one of Australia’s Antarctic bases, Davis Station. Our only contacts with the outside world were twice-daily radio calls and an occasional helicopter flight to refurbish our larder and take out our samples. No telephone, no Internet.

Down to Earth With: Lawson Brigham

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 12:40:01 -0500

Lawson Brigham, a Distinguished Professor of Geography and Arctic Policy at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and retired U.S. Coast Guard captain, has worn many hats in his career. He has been the deputy director and Alaska Office director of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission in Anchorage; chair of the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment of the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum of the eight Arctic nations; vice chair of the Arctic Council’s working group on Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment; and a contributing author to the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment.

Ice (Re) Cap: December 2014

Tue, 04 Nov 2014 12:06:57 -0500

University of Copenhagen researcher Bo Vinther, part of a team that assembled a new climate reconstruction for Greenland based on nitrogen isotopes, prepares an ice core for inspection. Credit: Christian Morel.

Past penguin populations not dependent on ice extent

Sun, 05 Oct 2014 20:27:55 -0400

In the past, populations of Chinstrap and Adélie penguins (shown here) increased in number during times of gradual warming in Antarctica. Credit: ©Shutterstock.com/axily.

Penguins’ lives revolve around ice, so it seems they might be particularly vulnerable to changing ice conditions and ice loss. But a new study charting the rise and fall of penguin populations over the last 30,000 years suggests that past populations have actually increased during times of climate warming and retreating ice.

Recovery of 1960s sea-ice satellite images wins dark data contest

Wed, 14 May 2014 11:19:49 -0400

Visualization of 2010 Arctic sea ice maximum. Credit: NASA.

As part of the Nimbus Data Rescue Project, the NSIDC/NASA team processed and digitized data and images from NASA’s early Nimbus satellites. The earliest images were collected by Nimbus 1 in 1964 as it circled Earth in August and September — the time of year when sea ice reaches its annual minimum and maximum extent in the Arctic and Antarctic, respectively — equipped with little more than a camera. That camera transmitted still photographs of Earth’s surface back to scientists, who filmed the images as they appeared on a TV screen. After being archived for decades, the team was able to scan tens of thousands of photographs, originally used for weather research, and stitch them together with modern software to produce maps of the sea-ice extent surrounding both poles. Resurrection of the Nimbus data thus extended the satellite record of sea-ice extent, which had previously only dated back to 1979, an additional 15 years.

Getting there and getting around in Antarctica

Thu, 12 Dec 2013 10:48:44 -0500

Traveling to Antarctica pretty much requires being part of an organized tour, something tens of thousands of people do each year. We went on a trip arranged by the Geological Society of America and Cheesemans' Ecology Safaris. If you aren’t lucky enough to take a scientific tour, there are plenty of more traditional tours that will get you there. Most depart from Argentina, but some go through the Falkland Islands as well as Australia and New Zealand. The vessels used by tour operators range from icebreakers to cruise ships to smaller yachts (not for those with a weak stomach) that can carry you across the Drake Passage to the more remote islands of the Scotia Arc and on to Antarctica.

Ship life

Thu, 12 Dec 2013 10:45:27 -0500

Perhaps the most common question I’ve gotten after returning from my trip is, “Did you get sea sick?” The answer is yes, but I wasn’t miserable. And in truth, very few individuals missed out on any of the shore excursions because they didn’t feel well.

Travels in Geology: Antarctica: Following in the footsteps of giants

Thu, 12 Dec 2013 10:32:38 -0500

In fall 2012, when I told friends and colleagues that I was heading south for a few weeks, they assumed that I, like many other northeasterners, was going to Florida or the Bahamas for a break from winter weather. Instead, I was headed to the iciest and southernmost place on Earth: Antarctica.

Astronomy under the ice: Scientists use Antarctic ice to study some of the tiniest particles in the cosmos

Mon, 25 Nov 2013 15:51:07 -0500

Deep below the glacial surface at the South Pole, where the Antarctic ice is crystal clear yet pitch black, a 3-D array of more than 5,000 custom-built and precisely positioned sensors, each about the size of a basketball, lies frozen in place. The sensors keep watch for thousands of momentary flashes of blue light that zip by every second, some the result of collisions between neutrinos — nearly massless subatomic particles with no electrical charge — and the relatively large atomic nuclei in the frozen water. Fittingly dubbed IceCube, the array is the world’s newest and largest operational neutrino observatory, and its aim, despite its subterranean setting, is to illuminate interstellar phenomena that are millions, and even billions, of light-years away.

Bare Earth Elements: IceCube observatory spurs "dawn of new age" in astronomy

Mon, 25 Nov 2013 11:56:46 -0500

Nicknamed 'Ernie,' the highest-energy neutrino ever observed, at 1.14 peta-electronvolts (PeV), was seen by IceCube on January 3, 2012. The second-highest-energy neutrino, nicknamed 'Bert,' had an energy of 1.04 PeV and was observed on August 9, 2011. Each blip of color in this image corresponds to the response of one of IceCube detectors. IceCube Collaboration

A skymap showing the approximate point sources of 28 high-energy neutrino events recently reported by the IceCube collaboration. IceCube Collaboration

“Deep below the glacial surface at the South Pole, where the Antarctic ice is crystal clear yet pitch black, a 3-D array of more than 5,000 custom-built and precisely positioned sensors, each about the size of a basketball, lies frozen in place.”

Ancient volcanic island arc blocked Antarctic current formation

Mon, 09 Sep 2013 14:26:57 -0400

The mountainous spine of South Georgia Island is the Allardyce Range, a displaced fragment of the Andes of southernmost South America. New research suggests such a volcanic island arc blocked the Antarctic Circumpolar Current from forming until 12 million years ago. NASA

There has long been a debate in the geological community over what caused the formation of the Antarctic ice sheet during the Eocene-Oligocene period about 30 million years ago. One of the widely accepted hypotheses is that the glaciation was triggered by the commencement of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), an ocean current that circles Antarctica insulating the continent from the warm waters to the north, allowing the ice sheet to remain relatively stable. However, a new study in Geology may invalidate this hypothesis.

Bare Earth Elements: Cool time-lapse shows movement of ice and animals in Antarctica's Ross Sea

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:53:57 -0400

Has anyone else been obsessed with Antarctica lately? As an erstwhile scientist with a lasting interest in the life that inhabits what we think of as extreme environments (not to mention the physical environments themselves), I’ve been gleefully soaking up details from the myriad news reports, blog entries and scientific studies coming out of the icy continent of late.

Antarctic trees surprise scientists

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 09:51:09 -0400

Scanning electron micrograph of a modern southern beech pollen grain that resembles pollen from the last stunted trees on Antarctica, which disappeared in the Late Miocene. Sophie Warny and Kate Griener, LSU

Rendering of drilling operations during the ANDRILL 2 campaign in Southern McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, from October through December 2007. University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Antarctic ice sheets can be unforgiving field sites for scientists looking for fossils, as the ice grinds and pulverizes signs of previous life. The adjacent ocean sediments, however, are a good hiding place for microscopic fossils from plants — pollen and leaf waxes that provide clues to ancient temperatures. Scientists have now retrieved samples of pollen and leaf wax from 15.5-million- to 20-million-year-old sediments that indicate Antarctica not only received more rain during the Middle Miocene than previously thought, but was also home to trees, albeit stubby ones. The discovery implies that, contrary to previous thinking, the continent has experienced warm periods since the onset of the most recent glaciation.

Five outstanding questions in earth science

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 19:13:31 -0400

A magma chamber beneath Yellowstone National Park has produced super-eruptions in the past and may do so again someday. Copyright Mary Caperton Morton

Sauropods' massive sizes are well established, but less is known about their biology. Copyright Matt Martyniuk, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Even 15 years after the release of “Good Will Hunting,” there remains something appealing about watching the title character, a mathematically inclined janitor at MIT, scribble the solution to an unsolved mathematics problem on a hallway blackboard. In reality, there are a number of unsolved problems in mathematics, seven of which were designated in 2000 by the Clay Mathematics Institute as “Millennium Prize Problems,” each with a purse of $1,000,000. To date, only one has been solved.

CryoScoop: Two-decade Antarctic drilling effort complete

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:29:21 -0500

The ice above Lake Vostok is a flat, glaring white expanse of ice. Michael Studinger

Lake Vostok in Antarctica is one of the largest freshwater lakes on Earth. Michael Studinger

Kathryn Hansen is an associate editor at EARTH and writes the CryoScoop blog. Karen Frey

Valery Lukin, director of the Russian Antarctic program, confirmed today that a team of Russian scientists has completed an Antarctic drilling project two decades in the making, according to the Associated Press. The team finished drilling on Feb. 5 through 3.25 kilometers of ice to reach Lake Vostok, the largest subglacial lake in the world.

Unearthing Antarctica's mysterious mountains

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:09:31 -0500

Three-dimensional perspective of the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains, including a view of the deep root imaged beneath the range and of the thinner crust of the East Antarctic Rift System that surounds the mountains. British Antarctic Survey

In 1958, geologists discovered a mountain range buried more than a kilometer beneath the East Antarctica Ice Sheet. For more than half a century, the origins of the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains have proven to be a geological puzzle, but a new study may have finally solved the enigma, and simultaneously given geologists a new understanding of mountain-building processes.

Blogging on EARTH: Yellow submarine robot debuts at AGU meeting

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

The robotic submersible in flight mode. It will be tested in March in Lake Tahoe and will head to Antarctica late in 2011. DOER Marine

The submersible ROV looks a lot like a big yellow cigar; it opens up once beneath the ice. DOER Marine

Geologist Ross Powell stands with the DOER submarine ROV that will dive beneath Antarctica in coming years. Northern Illinois University

Geologist Reed Scherer with the submersible ROV at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco this week. Northern Illinois University

The rover is on display at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco this week. Northern Illinois University

McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Photograph by Steven Profaizer, National Science Foundation

It doesn’t look like a typical robot. About half a meter across and 9 meters long, a new, super-high-tech submarine ROV, unveiled Tuesday in San Francisco at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting, strongly resembles … well, a big yellow cigar.

CryoScoop: Green Light to McMurdo

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

The Russian icebreaker will create a channel through the sea ice of Antarctica's McMurdo Sound to allow the annual refueling and resupply of two stations in Antarctica. Murmansk Shipping Company

Kathryn Hansen is an associate editor at EARTH and writes the CryoScoop blog. Lora Koenig

Polar scientists breathed a sigh of relief yesterday as the good news reached inboxes: Icebreaking capability was restored to McMurdo Station, preventing the deferment of some Antarctic field work this year.

CryoScoop: Massive rift portends Antarctic berg

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Kathryn Hansen is an associate editor at EARTH and writes the CryoScoop blog. Karen Frey

Researchers flying over West Antarctica last month were at the right place at the right time, spotting an actively growing rift that they expect will spawn an iceberg about 10 times the size of Manhattan.

Glacier moves in fits and starts

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Researchers install the seismographs in Antarctica at detected seismic waves from the Whillans Ice Stream. Douglas Wiens

The Whillans Ice Stream — an Antarctic glacier that covers an area slightly smaller than the state of New Jersey — flows from the interior of the continent to the ocean at a rate of about one meter per day. That’s not unusual for a large glacier, but how it covers that distance is surprising. Instead of inching along at a steady pace as most glaciers do, the Whillans Ice Stream jerks forward just twice a day, each time sending out seismic waves equivalent to a major earthquake. Now scientists say they know why — a “sticky spot” under the ice causes the glacier to stall for a while and then suddenly slip.

Montreal Protocol affects more than just ozone

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

The Antarctic Peninsula is warming - but the warming might have been faster if the Montreal Protocol hadn't slowed the growth of the ozone hole. Michael Collier, ESW Image Bank

In 1987, nearly 200 nations signed the Montreal Protocol to restrict the use of ozone-depleting chemicals. The international treaty helped keep the ozone hole over Antarctica from growing further, preventing an increase in harmful radiation reaching Earth’s surface. Twenty years later, new research suggests that the treaty helped the planet dodge more than one bullet: The Montreal Protocol also prevented significant regional climate change.

People of the Ice

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Andrew Podoll (left) and Kelly Gorz, both North Dakota State University geology undergraduates, map the terrain in Antarctica's Dry Valleys. Photo by Peter Rejcek of The Antarctic Sun. Dry Valleys Productions

The four geologists in 'Ice People' go on a hike to find fossils and volcanic ash. Taylor glacier is in the background. Dry Valleys Productions

Allan Ashworth (left) and Adam Lewis look for fossils in the Dry Valleys. Dry Valleys Productions.

Allan Ashworth exits his tent in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica. Photo by Adam Lewis. Dry Valleys Productions

Adam Lewis holds a spoon full of volcanic ash discovered in the Dry Valleys. Dry Valleys Productions

Riggers Andrew Asher and Michiel Lofton repair a wind generator tower after six months of winter darkness. Dry Valleys Productions.

Director Anne Aghion during the filming of 'Ice People.' Richard Fleming

“We do not come to Antarctica because we are in love with Antarctica. We come to Antarctica because we want a mystery to solve, and we love a challenge. And there’s one here.”

Student scientists cast a long shadow

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Nate Burgess

Andy Olander explains his poster to scientists at the American Geophysical Union's annual meeting in December 2008. Turtle Haste

Shannon Hamilton (left) and Meagan Richards measure sun shadows. Turtle Haste

Scientists in Antarctica measure sun shadows cast by the pole marking the South Pole. Charlie Kaminski

Last December, in the enormous, fluorescent-lit hall of San Francisco’s Moscone Center South, thousands of geophysicists and geologists milled through dozens of aisles of poster displays, chatting enthusiastically about the latest in geophysical research at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Within each aisle, people clustered around the more intriguing displays, trying to hear more about a given researcher’s work. At the center of one such group, commanding his own audience, was the youngest scientist ever to present research at an AGU conference.