antarctica

A pair of studies this week have shed new light on the melting of the Thwaites Glacier, one of Antarctica’s largest and most menacing stretches of ice. Often referred to as the “Doomsday Glacier,” it contains enough ice to raise global sea levels by about 2 feet all on its own. The new research contains some sobering conclusions. On the one hand, Thwaites may be melting more slowly than previous estimates have suggested. On the other hand, it’s still rapidly retreating inland from the sea. That suggests it may take less…

Scientists have good estimates of where the retreating grounding line is, thanks to satellites watching for tiny changes in the ice’s elevation. But they haven’t had a good picture of what the glacier’s belly looks like at the grounding line, because it’s under thousands of feet of ice. “These data are really exciting because we're getting a look into a hidden system,” says University of Waterloo glaciologist Christine Dow, who studies Antarctic glaciers but wasn’t involved in the research. Video: ITGC/Schmidt/WashamWith…

These images from the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite show the before and after of the massive slab of ice that broke away from the Brunt Ice Shelf. The image on the left shows cracks and chasms of the ice shelf on 25 October 2022, while the image on the right shows the iceberg breaking away from the ice shelf on January 24, 2023. Credit: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2022-23), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGOSatellite imagery confirms a gigantic iceberg, around five times the size of Malta, has finally…

A brief overview of the findings. Credit: TiPES/HP It has been hypothesized, that the tipping of one element of the Earth's system can catalyze the tipping of others in a cascade. A study gives an example of an alternative option, in which the collapse of one component might in fact make another system tipping less likely. In particular, the study indicates that tipping of the West Antarctica ice sheet may stabilize the…

Chasm-1 remained dormant for many years but has now created a new iceberg. Credit: BASAn enormous iceberg measuring 600 miles² (1550 km²), almost the size of Greater London, has broken off the 500-foot (150-meter) thick Brunt Ice Shelf. It calved after cracks that have been developing naturally over the last few years extended across the entire ice shelf, causing the new iceberg to break free. This occurred during a spring tide on Sunday, January 22 between 19.00 and 20.00 <span class="glossaryLink"…

The researchers with their 16.7-pound find. White helmet: Maria Schönbächler. Green helmet: Maria Valdes. Black helmet: Ryoga Maeda. Orange helmet: Vinciane Debaille. Credit: Photo courtesy of Maria ValdesAntarctica is a tough place to work, for obvious reasons— it’s bitterly cold, remote, and wild. However, it’s one of the best places in the world to hunt for meteorites. That’s partly because Antarctica is a desert, and its dry climate limits the degree of weathering the meteorites experience. On top of the dry…

Crash diet alert: Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf has slimmed down by about 256 billion tons. As part of a major calving event, an iceberg nearly the size of Houston, Texas, separated from the continent on Sunday, according to the British Antarctic Survey.It’s the second major iceberg break for the Brunt shelf in recent years. Aprevious one in February 2021 was, at the time, the largest known Brunt calving since satellite data collection began in the 1970s. That 2021 iceberg, named A-74, was about 470 square miles (1,270…

A huge iceberg nearly the size of Greater London has broken off the Antarctic ice shelf near a research station, the second such split in two years, researchers announced Monday.The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) said the formation of the new iceberg – in a natural process called "calving" – was not due to climate change, which is accelerating the loss of sea ice in the Arctic and parts of Antarctica.The iceberg, measuring 1,550 square kilometers (598 square miles), detached from the 150-metre-thick Brunt Ice Shelf a…

McMurdo Station houses anywhere from 100 to 1,000 scientists and staff at a given time, but some of those researchers venture out to field camps. Image: Wirestock Creators (Shutterstock)Elon Musk’s Starlink is getting even closer to a widespread reality. The satellite internet constellation from SpaceX is now steadilybeaming information to and from Antarctica, according to scientists currently stationed on the remote continent.The National Science Foundation announced that it would be bringing SpaceX’s Starlink…

James King collects sediment samples in Namibia. Credit: University of Montreal Until recently, the southern part of South America was believed to be the main source of the dust that lands in Antarctica. Fine particles, or aerosols, are often carried long distances by atmospheric circulation. This dust comes mostly from desert zones where the soil is eroded by the wind. Its origin gives us information about atmospheric…