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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Shifting Winds Possibly Ended Last Ice Age
28.06.2010
As most scientists are still trying to understand how the Earth emerged from its last ice age, a review paper published this week in the journal Science suggests a global shift in winds as an answer. According to scientists, a chain of events beginning with the melting of the large…
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Antarctic Peaks Responsible for Iceberg Break-up near Antarctic Coast
28.06.2010
Over the last decades, satellite images have shown several large icebergs break up when drifting along a particular stretch of the Antarctic coast. As they report in the Journal of Geophysical Research–Solid Earth, researchers now know the reason behind the break-up: the icebergs seem to be crashing into a previously…
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Scientists Heat Arctic Permafrost in Effort to Better Understand Thawing Processes
28.06.2010
In an effort to better understand the implications of global warming on the various layers of the Arctic permafrost, a group of scientists from the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) will be conducting a large-scale, long-term ecosystem experiment. Because of the large areas covered by permafrost…
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Scientists Herald Importance of Satellite Observations
16.06.2010
Scientists highlighted the exceptional contribution satellites have made to the International Polar Year (IPY) and charting the effects of climate change at the recent IPY Oslo Science Conference. During the IPY, the European Space Agency (ESA) provided coordinated observations of the Arctic and Antarctic using its Earth observation satellites such…
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IPY Oslo Science Conference: Largest Ever Gathering of Polar Scientists
15.06.2010
Between the 8th and 12th of June 2010, about 2,300 scientists, policymakers, teachers, journalists and students gathered at the Norway Convention Centre in Lillestrøm close to Oslo at the largest ever gathering of the polar research community: the IPY Oslo Science Conference. During the five days of the conference, researchers,…
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Subglacial Gamburtsev Mountains Revealed at IPY Oslo Science Conference
14.06.2010
Scientists at the IPY Oslo Science Conference revealed new images of the Gamburtsev Mountain Range of Antarctica. The images, the result of radar technology, reveal a landscape of steep summits, deep valleys, and liquid lakes. The range itself rivals the Alps in size. While previous imagery of the mountain range…
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Greenland Land Mass Rising as Ice Sheet Melts
20.05.2010
In a recent study published in Nature Geoscience, researchers at the University of Miami have found that the Greenland Ice Sheet is melting so quickly that the land underneath is rising at an accelerating pace. Some coastal areas – where the ice sheet is losing mass the most quickly –…
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Low Gravity Levels along Antarctic Coast South of New Zealand Explained
18.05.2010
In a recent study released in Nature Geoscience, scientists have found a new explanation for the very low gravity levels along the Antarctic coast to the south of New Zealand.
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Stream Water Analysis Helps in Assessment of Permafrost Thaw
07.05.2010
Monitoring changes in permafrost is difficult using current methods. Fortunately, researchers from the University of Michigan have developed a new approach based on the use of chemical tracers in stream water.
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“Snowball Earth” Caused Major Changes in Past Carbon Cycle
05.05.2010
A new study recently published in the journal Science suggests that an episode known as “snowball earth”, which occurred some 720 million years ago, may have produced a dramatic change in the carbon cycle. This change could have in turn triggered future ice ages.
