Improved modelling of ice-ocean processes
Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica is currently one of the single biggest contributors to sea-level rise with an estimated volume loss of 1.2mm sea-level equivalent per decade. The loss is caused,...
View ArticleStudy helps explain sea ice differences at Earth's poles
Why has the sea ice cover surrounding Antarctica been increasing slightly, in sharp contrast to the drastic loss of sea ice occurring in the Arctic Ocean? A new NASA-led study finds the geology of...
View ArticleSeals help plug Antarctic water mystery
Elephant seals have helped scientists to demonstrate that fresh water from Antarctic's melting ice shelves slows the processes responsible for the formation of deep-water ocean currents that regulate...
View ArticleTechnique could assess historic changes to Antarctic sea ice and glaciers
Historic changes to Antarctic sea ice could be unravelled using a new technique pioneered by scientists at Plymouth University.
View ArticleNew radar system could lead to better defences against avalanches
A new radar-based imaging system with an unprecedented ability to penetrate snow-powder clouds could lead to greater avalanche protection for towns, buildings, roads and railways.
View ArticleIce shelf vibrations cause unusual waves in Antarctic atmosphere
Low-frequency vibrations of the Ross Ice Shelf are likely causing ripples and undulations in the air above Antarctica, a new study finds. Using mathematical models of the ice shelf, the study's authors...
View ArticleYear by year, line by line, researchers build an image of Getz Ice Shelf
Antarctic ice appears in a range of types and sizes, from the newly formed skim of ice on the ocean called grease ice (above), to the older meter thick layers of sea ice, to chunks of icebergs,...
View ArticleGetting to know the Getz Ice Shelf
As scientists and crew with NASA's Operation IceBridge mission prepared for a research flight on Nov. 5, 2016, the weather in Punta Arenas, Chile, was cold, wet, and windy. But when they reached their...
View ArticleWest Antarctic ice shelf breaking up from the inside out
A key glacier in Antarctica is breaking apart from the inside out, suggesting that the ocean is weakening ice on the edges of the continent.
View ArticleAntarctica has a new explorer testing the water along a critical ice shelf
A short metal tube packed with scientific instruments parachuted into the ice-cold waters of Antarctica's Ross Sea on Tuesday, marking a new frontier in polar research. This ALAMO float and five others...
View ArticleMysterious 'crater' on Antarctica indication of vulnerable ice sheet (Update)
East Antarctica's massive ice sheet may be more exposed to global warming than long assumed, according to a study Monday that shows how strong winds can erode ice shelves that help hold it in place.
View ArticleGiant iceberg set to calve from Larsen C ice shelf
A huge iceberg, roughly the size of Norfolk, looks set to break away from the Larsen C ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula. Larsen C is more than twice the size of Wales. Satellite observations from...
View ArticleChanging atmospheric conditions may contribute to stronger ocean waves in...
Over the past few years, a large fracture has grown across a large floating ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula. The world is watching the ice shelf, now poised to break off an iceberg the size of...
View ArticleMassive Antarctic ice shelf ready to break apart
A chunk of ice half the size of Jamaica which is breaking away from West Antarctica is now attached to its parent ice shelf just by a thread, scientists reported Friday.
View ArticleThere's a giant crack in an Antarctic ice shelf. Should we be worried?
An accelerating crack in the ice shelf known as Larsen C, the fourth largest ice shelf in Antarctica, has grown by 17 miles since the beginning of December, according to multiple news reports,...
View ArticleWater is streaming across Antarctica: New survey finds liquid flow more...
In the first such continent-wide survey, scientists have found extensive drainages of meltwater flowing over parts of Antarctica's ice during the brief summer. Researchers already knew such features...
View ArticleWarm winds: New insight into what weakens Antarctic ice shelves
New research describes for the first time the role that warm, dry winds play in influencing the behaviour of Antarctic ice shelves. Presenting this week at a European conference scientists from British...
View ArticleUnderwater robots help predict how and when ice shelves collapse
To outer space and the deep ocean, add "beneath the ice" to the list of rarely charted frontiers of science exploration.
View ArticleIrreversible ocean warming threatens the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf
By the second half of this century, rising air temperatures above the Weddell Sea could set off a self-amplifying meltwater feedback cycle under the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, ultimately causing the...
View ArticleGiant iceberg poised to snap off from Antarctica: scientists
An expanse of ice roughly the size of Delaware is close to breaking off from the warming Antarctic ice shelf to form one of the world's largest-ever icebergs, scientists said Thursday.
View ArticleHuge Antarctic ice block poised to snap off
A chunk of ice bigger than the US state of Delaware is hanging by a thread from the West Antarctic ice shelf, satellite images revealed Wednesday.
View ArticleSentinel satellite captures birth of behemoth iceberg
Over the last few months, a chunk of Antarctica's Larsen C ice shelf has been hanging on precariously as a deep crack cut across the ice. Witnessed by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, a lump of ice...
View ArticleMathematical model calculates the collapse of shelf ice
Antarctic shelf ice consists of giant floating ice sheets that can span thousands of square kilometres. Pieces break off at their edges, forming icebergs in the ocean. In order to more effectively...
View ArticleSecrets of hidden ice canyons revealed
We are all aware that Antarctica's ice shelves are thinning, but recently scientists have also discovered huge canyons cutting through the underbelly of these shelves, potentially making them even more...
View ArticleWarm waters melting Antarctic ice shelves may have appeared for the first...
The vast expanse of the Antarctic is a region of the world particularly vulnerable to climate change, where ice loss has the potential to significantly increase sea levels.
View Article'Scars' left by icebergs record West Antarctic ice retreat
Thousands of marks on the Antarctic seafloor, caused by icebergs which broke free from glaciers more than ten thousand years ago, show how part of the Antarctic Ice Sheet retreated rapidly at the end...
View ArticleImage: Thurston island
The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission gives us 'radar vision' over part of Antarctica's third-largest island, Thurston Island.
View ArticleUndersea topography generates hot spots of ocean mixing
Using underwater robots in the waters surrounding Antarctica, scientists at Caltech have shown that the intersection of strong currents with the slope of landmasses rising from the ocean floor makes a...
View ArticleTiny ice losses at Antarctica's fringes can accelerate ice loss far away
A thinning of small areas of floating ice at Antarctica's coast can accelerate the movement of ice grounded on rocks hundreds of kilometers away, a new study shows. It is known that the ice shelves...
View ArticleNew study reveals strong El Nino events cause large changes in Antarctic ice...
A new study published Jan. 8 in the journal Nature Geoscience reveals that strong El Nino events can cause significant ice loss in some Antarctic ice shelves while the opposite may occur during strong...
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