Antarctica, features and articles | Educational Science

Apr 20, 2021

Enormous Antarctic iceberg that became an internet star finally melts away

An enormous Antarctic iceberg whose journeys were probably the most well-documented in history has now melted away to nothing in the Atlantic ocean. A68 cracked off the Larsen C ice sheet on the Antarctic Peninsula in 2017 as one of the biggest icebergs ever. At the time, it measured 2,240...

May 19, 2021

World's largest iceberg breaks off of Antarctica

An enormous iceberg, a little bigger than the state of Rhode Island, has broken off of Antarctica. The finger-shaped chunk of ice, which is roughly 105 miles (170 kilometers) long and 15 miles (25 kilometers) wide, was spotted by satellites as it calved from the western side of Antarctica's Ronne...

Jun 14, 2021

Earth's fifth ocean just confirmed

The Earth has finally attained popular recognition for its fifth ocean, with a decision by the National Geographic Society to add the Southern Ocean around Antarctica to the four it recognizes already: the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Arctic oceans. Although the designation of the frigid waters around the icy southern...

Jun 15, 2021

Antarctica was likely discovered 1,100 years before Westerners 'found' it

The first humans to discover Antarctica weren't seafaring Westerners but rather Polynesians, who found the coldest continent 1,300 years ago, a new study suggests. Researchers in New Zealand assessed oral histories about a Polynesian explorer spying an icy, mountainous continent untouched by the sun. To find the evidence, they sifted...

Jul 5, 2021

Microbes that feast on crushed rocks thrive in Antarctica's ice-covered lakes

Microbes living in an ice-covered lake in Antarctica are feasting on crushed rocks, researchers have discovered. And the little critters are thriving. Subglacial lakes are bodies of freshwater, a majority of which are found in Antarctica, trapped between Earth's crust, or bedrock, and thick sheets of ice — sometimes several...

Jul 13, 2021

NASA uncovers hidden system of mysteriously draining lakes under Antarctica

Scientists have discovered two new lakes buried deep beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet. These hidden gems of frigid water are part of a vast network of ever-changing lakes hidden beneath 1.2 to 2.5 miles (2 to 4 kilometers) of ice on the southernmost continent. These lakes fill and drain over...

Aug 20, 2021

Antarctica's 'Doomsday Glacier' is fighting an invisible battle against the inner Earth, new study finds

West Antarctica is one of the fastest-warming regions on Earth. For evidence, you need look no further than Thwaites Glacier — also known as the Doomsday Glacier. Since the 1980s, Thwaites has lost an estimated 595 billion tons (540 billion metric tons) of ice, single-handedly contributing 4% to the annual...

Aug 26, 2021

Massive iceberg narrowly avoided collision with Antarctic ice shelf

A massive iceberg that broke off of Antarctica last year recently spun around and narrowly avoided colliding with the Brunt Ice Shelf. Such a crash could have caused a new, even more massive iceberg to break off. Iceberg A-74, which is more than 20 times the size of Manhattan, split...

Sep 21, 2021

Underwater views of Antarctic jellies are 'a magic portal to another world'

The gelatinous, transparent bodies of bizarre jellylike sea creatures — illuminated by the twinkling of an internal light, and some with a recent meal still visible in their bellies — tumble and drift in hypnotic footage that was captured below the Antarctic ice. Edited into a trippy video composition, as...

Oct 26, 2021

These retouched photos of Shackleton's 1914 expedition look like they were taken yesterday

Retouched images of the famous Shackleton expedition of 1914 to 1917 look like they might have been snapped by a photographer visiting Antarctica today. The photos were originally taken in color, but London multimedia artist Stuart Humphryes brought them into the 21st century by enhancing what was already there. In...

Nov 12, 2021

See how the huge ozone hole over Antarctica has grown in 2021 in this NASA video

A new NASA video highlights the giant ozone hole that opened over Antarctica this year. A cold Southern Hemisphere winter, and possible effects of global warming, have caused the hole to grow to its 13th-largest extent since 1979. The ozone depletion you see in the NASA video is monitored by...

Dec 11, 2021

When did Antarctica become a continent?

Antarctica, the fifth-largest continent, is commonly known for penguins, massive calving ice shelves and failed exploratory expeditions. But this frozen swath on the bottom of the world wasn't always so isolated; it was once part of a larger supercontinent. So when did it become its own continent? Today, Antarctica is...

Dec 13, 2021

NASA is tracking two explorers across Antarctica to prepare humans for Mars

NASA is tracking two explorers on a 2,268-mile (3,650 kilometers) journey across Antarctica to learn more about humanity's ability to survive on Mars. British explorers Justin Packshaw and Jamie Facer Childs are on the 32nd day of an 80-day trek across the southernmost continent as part of the Chasing the...

Dec 14, 2021

Antarctica's 'Doomsday Glacier' could meet its doom within 3 years

Time is melting away for one of Antarctica's biggest glaciers, and its rapid deterioration could end with the ice shelf's complete collapse in just a few years, researchers warned at a virtual press briefing on Monday (Dec. 13) at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Thwaites glacier...

Dec 14, 2021

Rare wispy ice formations streak across the sea near Antarctica in beautiful satellite images

Strong winds and unusual ocean currents helped paint a breathtaking icescape on the surface of the ocean near Antarctica, and the rare phenomenon was recently captured in a stunning satellite image. The incredible image was taken on Nov. 20 by the Operational Land Imager onboard Landsat 8, a collaboration between...