Antarctica

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Climate Scientist Dies in Antarctica Accident

Snowmobile plunged 100 feet into crevasse

(Newser) - America's close-knit team of Antarctic researchers is mourning a colleague who died in one of the continent's most dangerous areas. Climate scientist Gordon Hamilton, a 50-year-old Scotsman, died Saturday when his snowmobile plunged into a crevasse in an area known as the "Shear Zone," 25 miles...

In Algae, a Key to White Cliffs of Dover

They could in theory be replicated in the Antarctic—in millions of years

(Newser) - Had William Shakespeare had a chance to peruse a new study, he might have praised nitrate for the dizzying view from atop the White Cliffs of Dover. That’s because the tiny algae, known as coccolithophores, which helped form the famous cliffs some 100 million years ago benefited from a...

Daring Antarctic Rescue Is Complete

It took 2 hectic days of flying to get 2 US workers to Chile

(Newser) - A small plane with two sick US workers arrived safely in Chile late Wednesday after leaving Antarctica in a daring rescue mission from a remote South Pole research station, officials say. After making a stop for a few hours at a British station on the edge of Antarctica, the two...

Worker at World's Most Remote Place Needs Rescue

There have only been 2 previous South Pole winter rescues

(Newser) - At least one worker is seriously ill at the US South Pole station, and because it is winter in Antarctica, it would be easier to reach the unidentified person if he or she were anywhere else on the planet—or even on the International Space Station. The worker is one...

Sea Levels Set to Rise Much Faster Than Expected

Collapsing ice cliffs could accelerate Antarctic melt

(Newser) - Warmer air, less-frigid water, and gravity may combine to make parts of Antarctica's western ice sheet melt far faster than scientists had thought, raising sea levels much more than expected by the end of the century, according to a new study. New physics-based computer simulations forecast dramatic increases in...

UK Wants Public to Name Vessel, Gets 'Boaty McBoatface'

The man who first suggested the name has since apologized

(Newser) - When the Natural Environment Research Council in the UK put the naming of its $300 million Antarctic survey vessel to a public vote online, well, the Internet had a little fun. NERC asked for "an inspirational name that exemplifies the work" the ship will do, and suggestions ranged from...

150K 'Dead' Penguins Might Just Be Chilling Elsewhere

They may have only abandoned their colony: expert

(Newser) - Troubled by the apparent deaths of 150,000 penguins since a Rhode Island-sized iceberg crashed into Antarctica in 2010? Good news: There might be an alternative explanation for their disappearance. No one has actually found the bodies of 150,000 Adélie penguins that vanished from a colony at Cape...

Iceberg Crashes Into Antarctica, Kills 150K Penguins

Suddenly, their food source was 40 miles away

(Newser) - Penguins have been recorded living at Cape Denison in Antarctica's Commonwealth Bay for 100 years, the Guardian reports. But their time could be nearly up. According to CNN , 150,000 penguins in the Cape Denison colony have died since an iceberg nearly the size of Rhode Island crashed into...

You Can Now Get a Passport to Antarctica

Either go to New York, or do it online

(Newser) - If you want to get your hands on a passport to Antarctica, you now can, sort of, Hyperallergic reports. But instead of bureaucrats and red tape, you'll head to New York City's Jane Lombard Gallery , where artist Lucy Orta tells the New York Times that you'd best...

Explorer Attempts Antarctic Feat, Dies 30 Miles Short

Henry Worsley suffers organ failure 71 days into epic journey

(Newser) - An explorer trying to complete a historic trek across Antarctica covered 913 miles over 71 days on his own—only to die 30 miles short of his goal, reports the Guardian . Henry Worsley, a 55-year-old former British army officer, died of "complete organ failure" after being airlifted out, says...

Vast Find Made in Unknown Region of Antarctica

We know more about the surface of Mars than the bed of Antarctica

(Newser) - For more than 50 years, scientists from across the globe have been painstakingly mapping both poles, trying to get an accurate sense of the rock hidden beneath the ice sheets. Now, thanks to satellite data from multiple organizations and "serendipitous reconnaissance radio-echo sounding data" over the canyons of Antarctica,...

Japan to Begin 3-Month Antarctic Whale Hunt

Critics say whales don't need to be killed for conservation research

(Newser) - Japan is wasting little time in resuming its "scientific" whale hunte : Its whaling fleet will leave Tuesday for the Antarctic for a three-month, scaled-down hunt, the government says, despite protests. Monday's announcement comes days after Japan submitted its final plan to the International Whaling Commission after the...

Controversial Study Finds Antarctica Is Actually Gaining Ice

But that doesn't mean global warming isn't still a huge problem

(Newser) - A recent NASA study has come to a shocking conclusion that contradicts a host of other studies, multitudes of climate scientists, the UN, and even other scientists at NASA: Antarctica is actually gaining more ice than it's losing, despite global warming. How's that possible? Live Science reports the...

The Ozone Hole Is Nearing Record Size

It's now larger than the entirety of North America

(Newser) - Scientists who assumed the infamous ozone hole over Antarctica was steadily shrinking received an unpleasant surprise last month: The hole is approaching a size unseen in nine years, Popular Science reports. According to Live Science , in October researchers at the German Aerospace Center recorded the size of the hole in...

All Antarctic Ice Would Melt If We Burned All Fossil Fuels

Seas could rise 160 feet: study

(Newser) - If we were to burn all of the planet's fossil fuel reserves, we would be saying goodbye to the entire Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. That's the takeaway from an international study announced today, Reuters reports. "To be blunt: If we burn it all, we melt it...

Surprise Find in Antarctica: Oldest Animal Sperm

It dates back 50M years, from a worm

(Newser) - They were looking for mammal bones, but scientists exploring an island in the Antarctic instead stumbled across an unexpected milestone—the world's oldest animal sperm. They found it inside a fossilized cocoon made by some type of worm (possibly a crayfish worm) 50 million years ago, reports Nature . It...

Why China's Antarctica Presence Is Worrying Some

Country rapidly expanding polar presence

(Newser) - China took a long time to get to Antarctica, but the country is now boosting its presence there at a rate that some experts find alarming, according to the New York Times . The country has now opened a fourth research station on the frozen continent and knows where it will...

Beneath Antarctica's Blood Falls, a Clue to Mars?

'Subglacial world' of briny water could hint at life elsewhere

(Newser) - The chillingly named Blood Falls is a fascinating feature of Antarctica's landscape : Interrupting the blanket of frozen white, the falls is a liquid, rusty red. (It's no coincidence that the falls looks rusty: The water gets its color from oxidized iron it carries.) And, as a researcher...

Antarctica May Have Hit Its Highest Temperature Ever

Readings at 2 separate stations reportedly reached the low 60s

(Newser) - A recently published study and two weather station readings suggest that Antarctica may be exhibiting the effects of global warming, the Guardian reports. A March 24 reading at the Esperanza Base south of Argentina registered a balmy 63.5 degrees Fahrenheit, which is more than 30 degrees above average for...

Antarctica Sex Offender Gets 3-Year Sentence

Lab manager plotted to abuse girl in UK, police say

(Newser) - A laboratory manager for the British Antarctic Survey is going to be remembered not for his scientific achievements, but as the world's southernmost pedophile. Police in Britain say Simon Rouen, 36, exchanged emails with undercover officers in the UK while working at an Antarctic research station and expressed a...

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