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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Strong Earthquakes Hit Antarctica
17.01.2012
A strong earthquake and two strong aftershocks struck the South Orkney Islands in Antarctica northeast of the Antarctic Peninsula on Sunday 15 January, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
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New Zealanders Measuring Movement of Magnetic South Pole
31.12.2011
Two research scientists from New Zealand, Stewart Bennie and Tony Hurst of GNS Science, are currently on an expedition in Antarctica to take measurements of the Magnetic South Pole.
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Arctic Permafrost Has Potential to Release More Carbon than Previously Estimated
30.11.2011
A study looking at survey results from 41 international scientists recently published in the journal Nature suggests that the levels of greenhouse gases to be released from thawing permafrost could be significantly higher than previously estimated.
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Origins of Gamburtsev Sublacial Mountains Explained
17.11.2011
An international team of scientists from seven nations recently published in Nature their findings regarding the origins of the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains, located 3 km beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. How the mountains formed is a mystery that has interested scientists since they were first discovered in 1958 as…
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Studying How Microbes in Permafrost Respond to Thawing
07.11.2011
Recent assessments estimate that Arctic permafrost stores as much as 1,672 billion metric tons of carbon – 250 times what the United States emitted in greenhouse gasses in 2009. As temperatures rise, scientists worldwide are concerned about the possible consequences of a massive release of carbon from the soils thawing…
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Greenland Mud Volcanoes Possible Birthplace of Terrestrial Life
31.10.2011
In a study recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international team of scientists lead by by researchers from the Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon identified the mud volcanoes at Isua in southwest Greenland as a possible source of primitive life on Earth. During the…
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Permafrost May Become Major Carbon Source by End of Century
31.08.2011
Soils at high latitudes might turn from a carbon sink into a major carbon source by the end of the 21st century, according to a recently developed model.
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Calving Events in Antarctica Linked to Tōhoku Tsunami
12.08.2011
A group of scientists from NASA’s Goddard Space flight Center, Northwestern University and the University of Chicago have been able to link the Tōhoku Earthquake in March 2011 and subsequent tsunami it generated to the calving of icebergs off of the Sulzberger Ice Shelf in Antarctica.
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Study of Anaktuvuk River Fire Highlights Major Impacts of Tundra Fires on Carbon Storage
31.07.2011
In 2007, the Anaktuvuk River Fire in Alaska – the largest ever recorded tundra fire in the Arctic – burned 1039 km² and released over 2.3 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere. A study of the region affected by the fire conducted by resarchers at the University of Alaska…
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British Antarctic Survey Discovers New Antarctic Volcanoes
13.07.2011
Using sea-floor mapping instruments aboard the RSS James Clark Ross, scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) discovered 27 previously unknown volcanoes, 12 of which are underwater. Studying these underwater volcanoes not only gives scientists cues about the development of our planet, but also about natural events like tsunamis that…
