Soil frost is a nearly universal process in the Arctic. In a recent dissertation by doctoral student Marina Becher at Umeå University, it is shown that the frequency and extent of Arctic soil frost is important for the release of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from arctic soil. Soil in the Arctic has for thousands of years gathered large quantities […]
Read more
When an El Nino hits, the lives of penguins are in peril. During the 1997 El Nino the penguin population fell by a third. During Climate Change a difference in temperature of at least one degree can be a life and death situation for penguins. Researchers followed a group of about 15 breeding penguins from 1992 to 2010 on the […]
Read more
Just before Christmas… November 1915, while camping on the thawing ice of the Weddell Sea, Shackleton and his men saw their ship, Endurance, going down into the waters of this sea. “She’s going, boys!” Shackleton shouted the evening of November 21, 1915. “She went down bows first, her stern raised in the air. She then gave one quick dive and […]
Read more
The fossil of a sea creature that lived around the earth approximately 70 million years was found around Antarctica. The remains were located about 1966 but were not able to be removed from the rock until now. Researchers uncovered the remains of what they are calling an Elasmosaurus or the real-life Loch Ness Monster. When it was alive it could […]
Read more
After an adventurous expedition a group of explorers have reportedly discovered several strange man-made ancient pyramids in Antarctica. For those who don’t already know, “when life first came onto the land, Antarctica was one of the continental landmasses to be covered in forests and animals. Much of the fossil record of the Antarctic landmass is under the ice, but fossils, […]
Read more
Results from a new climate reconstruction of how Antarctica’s ice sheets responded during the last period when atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) reached levels like those expected to occur in about 30 years, plus sediment core findings reported in a companion paper, suggest that the ice sheets are more vulnerable to rising atmospheric CO2 than previously thought. Details appear in two […]
Read more
Research shows there may be an entire world underneath Antarctica’s ice-free Dry Valleys, which on the surface may seem hostile to life. Below the surface lies rivers of liquid salt water which flow into subsurface lakes, every drop of which could be swarming with microbial life. One of Antarctica’s most unique features, the briny, rusty-red colored Blood Falls, could possibly […]
Read more
The waters off the west coast of Antarctica has started to warm up over the past 50 years. The temperature has risen about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit, warmer than the average water temperature worldwide. It has reached the temperature of 34 degrees which is warm enough for king crab to survive. Normally the king crab live on the continental slopes and […]
Read more
Crested and rockhopper penguins are threatened by climate change – but this time the penguins could be at risk because they cannot change their own ways. Evolution has left them with a rigid parenting strategy, probably well adapted for climate conditions so far. But as temperatures rise, conditions change and food supplies become precarious, the inflexible roles of male and female […]
Read more