Antarctica, features and articles | Educational Science

Dec 20, 2021

What is Lake Vostok?

Deep, dark and mysterious, Lake Vostok is one of the largest subglacial lakes in the world. Once a large surface lake in East Antarctica, Lake Vostok is now buried under about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) of ice near Russia's Vostok research station. Covered with ice for millennia, cut off from...

Dec 30, 2021

Unimaginable diversity of life discovered beneath Antarctic ice shelf

Deep beneath Antarctica's ice shelves, researchers have discovered dozens of life-forms thriving on a tiny patch of the seafloor —— an unprecedented level of species diversity for an environment that has never seen sunlight. If you had asked me three questions at the manuscript onset, said study co-author David Barnes,...

Jan 21, 2022

Antarctica's doomed A68 iceberg dumped 1 trillion tons of water into the ocean over 3 years

After the world's largest iceberg snapped off of the Antarctic Peninsula in July 2017, it drifted north on a three-year death march, shedding an unfathomable amount of meltwater into the sea. Now, a new study of the doomed iceberg (named A68a) reveals just how much water the infamous mega-berg actually...

Mar 9, 2022

Endurance Expedition: Shackleton's Antarctic survival story

The Endurance Expedition was a British mission to cross the Antarctic on foot in 1914-17. Launched in August 1914, the expedition became one of the most famous survival stories of all time after the expedition's ship, Endurance, became stranded and then sank during the voyage to the Antarctic. The Endurance's...

Mar 16, 2022

Antarctic sea ice at record low in February, satellite data reveal

Antarctic sea-ice coverage was at a record low in February, satellite images have revealed. However, the amount of Antarctic sea ice varies considerably each year and climate change is not necessarily to blame. On Feb. 25, sea-ice extent — a measurement of the ocean's sea ice — around Antarctica shrank...

Mar 22, 2022

Alarming heat waves hit Arctic and Antarctica at the same time

Both of Earth's polar regions recently experienced unprecedented simultaneous heat waves that caused temperatures to briefly skyrocket to never-before-seen heights in some areas. While experts say such extreme temperatures cannot be solely attributed to climate change, the unusual phenomenon is nonetheless dramatic and alarming. In Antarctica on Friday (March 18),...

Mar 26, 2022

Sudden collapse of Antarctic ice shelf could be sign of things to come

A massive Antarctic ice shelf that covered an area about the size of New York City or Rome just collapsed into the ocean. Scientists warn that while they do not expect significant impacts as a result of this event, melting ice in this historically stable region may be a foreboding...

Jun 10, 2022

Discovery of 'hidden world' under Antarctic ice has scientists 'jumping for joy'

A never-before-seen ecosystem lurks in an underground river deep below the icy surface in Antarctica. Researchers recently brought this hidden world into the light, revealing a dark and jagged cavern filled with swarms of tiny, shrimplike creatures. The scientists found the secret subterranean habitat tucked away beneath the Larsen Ice...

Jun 14, 2022

'Factorian Deep,' the new deepest point in Antarctica's Southern Ocean, mapped for the first time

Researchers have published the most detailed map of Antarctica's frigid Southern Ocean to date, including the ocean's new deepest point, the Factorian Deep, which sits nearly 24,400 feet (7,437 meters) below the sea surface. Resting at a depth equivalent to about 17 Empire State Buildings stacked top to bottom, the...

Jun 15, 2022

Antarctica's 'Doomsday Glacier' is hemorrhaging ice faster than in the past 5,500 years

Antarctica's so-called Doomsday Glacier is losing ice at its fastest rate in 5,500 years, raising concerns about the ice sheet's future and the possibility of catastrophic sea level rise caused by the frozen continent's melting ice. The finding comes from a study of prehistoric sea-deposits found on the shores surrounding...

Sep 8, 2022

'Doomsday Glacier' is teetering even closer to disaster than scientists thought, new seafloor map shows

Underwater robots that peered under Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier, nicknamed the Doomsday Glacier, saw that its doom may come sooner than expected with an extreme spike in ice loss. A detailed map of the seafloor surrounding the icy behemoth has revealed that the glacier underwent periods of rapid retreat within the...

Oct 13, 2022

Scientists discover 1 million-year-old DNA sample lurking beneath Antarctic seafloor

DNA from ancient microorganisms, some of which dates back to roughly 1 million years ago, has been discovered beneath the seafloor in Antarctica. The DNA is the oldest ever discovered from seafloor sediments, a new study shows. Scientists accidentally collected the unusual genetic samples, known as sedimentary ancient DNA or...

Oct 14, 2022

Ice Shelf Collapse Reveals New Undersea World

The collapse of a giant ice shelf in Antarctica has revealed a thriving ecosystem half a mile below the sea. Despite near freezing and sunless conditions, a community of clams and a thin layer of bacterial mats are flourishing in undersea sediments. Seeing these organisms on the ocean bottom --...

Oct 19, 2022

Massive Antarctic iceberg was ripped in two by powerful ocean currents

A swift change in ocean currents in the Southern Ocean likely snapped one of the largest icebergs in half like a twig. The gigantic ice mass — called A68a — was known as a tabular iceberg due to its rectangular shape. At its largest it was roughly the size of...

Nov 2, 2022

Enormous river discovered beneath Antarctica is nearly 300 miles long

A river longer than England's Thames flows beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, draining an area the size of France and Germany combined, new research reveals. This under-ice river was discovered using ice-penetrating radar mounted on aircraft. In a series of aerial surveys, researchers discovered a river system snaking 285 miles...