SciencePoles news
Recent Polar Science and Climate Change news are featured here. Our news RSS feed will inform you when news are published on this website.
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Ice Shelves in West Antarctica Being Torn Apart
31.03.2012
A study published in the Journal of Glaciology indicates that the ice shelves of West Antarctica are being “torn apart” as the flow of the glaciers which feed into the ice shelves has been accelerating.
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Penguin Breeding Cycles and Populations Affected by Warming along Antarctic Peninsula
26.03.2012
Rising temperatures along the western Antarctic Peninsula are affecting three different species of penguin that share the same breeding grounds in the region, according to research conducted by Prof. Heather Lynch and her colleagues at the Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York. Warming conditions have led to the…
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Climate Changes Poses Risk to Antarctic Fur Seal Pups
26.03.2012
A study published in the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology has found that changing weather conditions predicted by climate models might affect the metabolic rates and thus the survival rates of fur seal pups. Windier and wetter conditions predicted in the Antarctic in the coming years could force young seals…
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Vast Antarctic Algal Bloom Can Be Seen from Space
07.03.2012
A massive algal bloom which has appeared off the coast of Mac Robertson Land in Antarctica is so large it is clearly visible to NASA’s Modis satellite.
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Salty Antarctic Soils Suck Moisture from Atmosphere
29.02.2012
Salty soils in the McMurdo Dry Valleys region of Antarctica suck moisture out of the atmosphere, according to research led by Oregon State University geologist Joseph Levy.
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Russians Reach Subglacial Lake Vostok
09.02.2012
On Sunday 5 February 2012, a Russian drilling team was able to penetrate the surface of Lake Vostok, the largest subglacial lake in Antarctica (250 km long and 30 km wide), which began to be covered by ice between 15 and 34 million years ago. Having not had contact with…
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Moving Teardrop-Shaped Lakes Discovered on George VI Ice Shelf
03.02.2012
Researhcers from the University of Chicago have been keeping an eye on teardrop-shaped lakes on top of the George VI Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula, which travel as much as 1.5 metres a day – but in a very unusual manner.
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Russian Drill Team Close to Penetrating Lake Vostok
31.01.2012
A Russian drilling team is close to penetrating subglacial Lake Vostok, located more than three and a half kilometers deep in the Antarctic Ice Sheet, not far from the Russian Vostok Station at the Magnetic South Pole. After two decades of drilling through several kilometres of ice, the team is…
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Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Found off Antarctic Coast
31.01.2012
According to a study published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology that was conducted by Jorge Hernández, Björn Olsen and their colleagues from Uppsala University in Sweden, bacteria that are resistant to nearly all kinds of antibiotics are present in seawater off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. The fact that…
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Engineering Team for Lake Ellsworth Drilling Project Completes Deep-Field Expedition
17.01.2012
Four engineers from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have returned to the UK after completing a journey to one of the harshest parts of Antarctica to put in place equipment and supplies for the Lake Ellsworth Subglacial Lake drilling project, which will explore an ancient lake buried 3 km deep…
