Antarctica, features and articles | Educational Science

Mar 31, 2020

Antarctica's Denman Glacier is sinking into the world's deepest canyon

The glaciers of Antarctica are melting at unprecedented rates, and a giant canyon in the continent's rocky underbelly could make matters much worse. In a study published March 23 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, researchers used more than 20 years of satellite data to monitor the ice in Denman...

Apr 2, 2020

Remains of 90 million-year-old rainforest discovered under Antarctic ice

About 90 million years ago, West Antarctica was home to a thriving temperate rainforest, according to fossil roots, pollen and spores recently discovered there, a new study finds. The world was a different place back then. During the middle of the Cretaceous period (145 million to 65 million years ago),...

Jul 2, 2020

How a hidden ocean circulates beneath the Antarctic ice

Jules Verne sent his fictional submarine, the Nautilus, to the South Pole through a hidden ocean beneath a thick ice cap. Written 40 years before any explorer had reached the pole, his story was nevertheless only half fiction. There are indeed hidden ocean cavities around Antarctica, and our latest research...

Aug 5, 2020

Here is the best place on Earth to see stars, according to science

Good news: Scientists have found the absolute best place on Earth for romantic stargazing! Bad news: It's literally next-door to the South Pole. The hotspot (or cold spot, in this case) is called Dome A, and is located on a plateau near central Antarctica, roughly 2.5 miles, (4 kilometers) above...

Aug 26, 2020

Scientists discover the fastest-melting spot in East Antarctica

Researchers have discovered a deep underwater trough in Antarctica that could spell doom for one of the continent's vulnerable ice shelves. Located hundreds of feet below the Shirase Glacier in East Antarctica, the trough appears to be funneling warm ocean water directly against the base of the glacier's ice shelf...

Sep 21, 2020

Melting ice sheets will add over 15 inches to global sea level rise by 2100

If humans continue emitting greenhouse gases at the current pace, global sea levels could rise more than 15 inches (38 centimeters) by 2100, scientists found in a new study. Greenhouse gases emitted by human activity, such as carbon dioxide, contribute significantly to climate change and warming temperatures on planet Earth,...

Oct 22, 2020

The ozone hole over Antarctica has grown much deeper and wider in 2020

The hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica has expanded to one of its greatest recorded sizes in recent years. In 2019, scientists revealed that the Antarctic ozone hole had hit its smallest annual peak since tracking began in 1982, but the 2020 update on this atmospheric anomaly – like...

Dec 15, 2020

The UK is sending robot submarines to watch the world’s largest iceberg crash into an island

The world's largest iceberg, A-68a, may be mere days away from crashing into the Antarctic wildlife refuge of South Georgia island, and researchers are already preparing for the aftermath. According to the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), which has tracked the iceberg for months, two refrigerator-sized robots will soon ship out...

Jan 27, 2021

Martian mineral, rare on Earth, found locked in Antarctic ice

Scientists boring more than a mile deep into Antarctic ice have unearthed a mineral that's rarely seen on Earth but found in abundance on Mars, Science Magazine reported. The yellow-brown mineral, called jarosite, requires both water and acidic conditions to form, according to NASA — conditions that are hard to...

Feb 2, 2021

World's largest iceberg shatters into a dozen pieces

The world's largest iceberg has shattered into a dozen pieces, the U.S. National Ice Center (USNIC) reported on Sunday (Jan. 31), bringing the colossal object a few leaps closer to its total destruction. Thousands of local penguins have breathed a sigh of relief. The iceberg, named A-68a, broke off of...

Feb 17, 2021

World's largest iceberg disintegrates into 'alphabet soup,' NASA photo shows

The ocean north of Antarctica has turned into an alphabet soup of broken icebergs, according to a new blog post on NASA's Earth Observatory website. In a satellite photo snapped on Feb. 11, 2021, the jagged outlines of 11 fractured icebergs swirl around a remote, penguin-filled island called South Georgia,...

Feb 18, 2021

Lakes beneath the Antarctic ice could be teeming with microbial life

Frigid lakes locked beneath the Antarctic ice sheet may be home to more microbial life than scientists ever imagined. More than 400 subglacial lakes lie beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, completely shut off from sunlight, according to the new paper, published Feb. 17 in the journal Science Advances. These lakes...

Feb 26, 2021

Giant crack frees a massive iceberg in Antarctica

A giant iceberg, more than 20 times the size of Manhattan, just split off from Antarctica's Brunt Ice Shelf. This dramatic breakup comes after a major crack formed on the shelf in November 2020 and continued to grow until the 'berg finally broke off Friday morning (Feb. 26). The so-called...

Mar 19, 2021

Scientists uncover Antarctic sea creatures 'trapped under ice' for 50 years

About two weeks ago, an iceberg large enough to hold New York City nearly two times over cracked off of the Antarctic Ice Sheet and began drifting slowly through the Weddell Sea. Now, researchers have gotten a rare glimpse at the marine life living deep below the ice — finally...

Apr 14, 2021

Antarctica's 'Doomsday Glacier' close to tipping point, unmanned sub reveals

A robotic submarine has returned from the dark underbelly of one of Antarctica's largest glaciers with chilling news — it could be melting faster than we previously thought. Thwaites Glacier, a gigantic ice shelf in West Antarctica, has been on climate scientists' radars for two decades now. But they didn't...