A cubic kilometer of clear, stable ice could help physicists answer big questions about cosmic rays and neutrinos. Hardy scientists collect data via a unique telescope at the frozen bottom of the world.
Antarctica is vital to the planet’s climate system.
Antarctic image from www.shutterstock.com
If we burned all fossil fuels, the loss of ice in Antarctica would raise sea levels 160 to 200 feet, but even our current trajectory could lead to dramatic sea level rise.
Antarctica is managed by the Antarctic Treaty System, which regulates what states and private companies can do.
The National Guard
If we’re going to mine asteroids, then we need an international treaty to prevent it becoming a wild west. Thankfully we can look to Antarctica to see how such a treaty might work.
Study raises new questions over the rate of ice melting, and thus sea level rise.
NASA
NASA’s former climate chief, James Hansen, is lead author on a paper that predicts rapidly rising seas this century, but not all climate scientists believe the study’s models are convincing.
Gathering data at the calving front of the Ilulissat Glacier, Greenland.
Denise Holland
To create accurate models that predict how ice sheets and oceans will react to changing climate, modelers need precise current data. One researcher heads to the ends of the earth to collect just that.
Icy waters off the western Antarctic Peninsula.
Kathryn Smith
Hundreds of meters below the surface of the freezing ocean surrounding Antarctica, the seafloor is teeming with life. The animals living there have no idea that an army is on the brink of invading their tranquil environment.
Australia has a long history of first class science.
Willem van Aken/CSIRO
Australian scientists are listened to by government and business, but must do more to ensure their advice and work contributes to a stronger future for Australia.
The frontline of climate change.
Alba Martin-EspaÒol
Yet more doom and gloom from the bottom of the Earth.
Breaking the ice: while scientists increasingly understand why Antarctic sea ice is growing, it remains tricky to forecast.
Australian Antarctic Division
Since 1993, satellites have been used as well as tidal gauges to monitor sea level. A new calibration of this satellite record now shows that the rise in sea level is gathering pace.
A US Coast Guard icebreaker cuts a swathe through the icy the Southern Ocean earlier this year, on its way to rendezvous with a stricken fishing vessel.
Allyson Conroy/US Coast Guard/Wikimedia Commons
On the eve of a summit in Chile to discuss the protection of marine life in Antarctic waters, much still needs to be done to guard against overfishing, climate change and other threats.
The Totten Glacier, the largest in East Antarctica, has deep channels running beneath it that may allow relatively warm water into its belly.
Tas van Ommen
Researchers in East Antarctica have surveyed an area the size of New South Wales to study the behaviour of the region’s biggest glacier - and the secrets below the ice that could speed up its melting.
Deception wrong-footed scientists three times in ten years, and remains a mystery.
Wikimedia
Deception is the premier tourist destination in the Antarctic. It’s also the volcano that scientists are still not sure why it’s there.
Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf photographed in October 2011 from NASA’s DC-8 research aircraft during an Operation IceBridge flight.
Michael Studinger/NASA
Researchers find that ice around Antarctica shrank quickly last decade, raising concerns over this buttress against melting land-based ice and future sea-level rise.
These ‘cliffs’ can be the height of a skyscraper.
Torsten Blackwood / EPA
This morning, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessels leave port to pursue a new campaign in the Southern Ocean — but this time, it’s not all about whales. Operation Icefish will target vessels fishing…
Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica's Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong