Home/Posts Tagged ‘Antarctica’
Posts Tagged ‘Antarctica’
Climate Change, Politics, Science & Technology, May 10th, 2012,
By Michael D. Lemonick It’s just two weeks since a paper in Nature flagged an ominous thinning of ice shelves along parts of the Antarctic coast lying due south of the Pacific Ocean. The ice appears to be melting from below, as changing ocean currents are bringing relatively warm water to bathe the shelves’ undersides — and as the ice shelves lose mass, they also lose their ability to slow land-based ice in its slide toward the sea. Now there’s something new to worry about. A pair of brand-new studies published today, one in Nature and one in its sister…
Tags: Antarctica, Climate change, climate science, climatecentral.org, global warming, ice melting
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Weird Stuff, Feb 23rd, 2012,
By Michael D. Lemonick Legend has it that in the final days of the Third Reich, loyalists smuggled Adolf Hitler’s remains out of Berlin along with those of his paramour, Eva Braun. The deceased were later ferried by U-Boat all the way down to a secret Nazi base in Antarctica, where they were, depending on which version you believe, interred or used for cloning experiments. Maybe a thousand identical copies of the mass murderer walk among us! Or maybe the legends about Nazis in Antarctica are as every bit as ridiculous as they sound (though not as ridiculous as this…
Tags: Antarctica, Climate change, climatecentral.org, ice
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Apr 30th, 2010,
Arctic temperatures have risen twice as fast in recent decades as temps in the rest of the world. Melting sea ice – considered part of a positive feedback loop – as well as wind, cloud and ocean current changes have been suspected of driving this rapid warming, known as Arctic amplification. A positive feedback loop is a system where the cause and effect perpetuate one another, like a vicious circle. A new study shows that Arctic warming from melting sea ice may be driving a positive feedback loop between rising temperatures and disappearing ice. From an article in the Guardian:…
Tags: Antarctica, arctic, feedback, floating, Guardian, ice, loop, melt, ozone, positive, sea, temperatures, warming
Science & Technology, Wildlife & Flora, Mar 16th, 2010,
About 6 weeks ago, a group of researchers set out on a mission: to prove that Japan does not need to perform “lethal whale research” in order to obtain accurate and effective scientific information about the large marine mammals. The mission was a success. Australian, French and New Zealand scientists set out to Antarctic waters to perform their own nonlethal scientific research on the whales. Most of the whales studied were humpbacks; which the scientists took photos of and biopsy samples from 60 of them. They also attached satellite tracking devices to 30 of the whales in order to study…
Tags: Antarctica, expedition, humpback whales, IWC, japan, nonlethal whale research, study, whaling
Climate Change, Feb 27th, 2010,
More pieces of ice are floating around the world and those pieces are getting bigger every year. The Luxembourg-sized B9B iceberg collided with the floating Mertz Glacier, resulting in another large piece of ice breaking off the glacier. How large is it? The new iceberg is approximately 48 miles (78 km) long and 24 miles (39 km) wide. Oh, and it holds 1/5th of the world’s total yearly water usage. The 2 icebergs are now drifting somewhere between 60 and 95 miles off the eastern side of Antarctica. While they are pretty large in size, they are not record-breaking in…
Tags: Antarctica, Climate change, global warming, iceberg B9B, icebergs, Luxembourg-sized iceberg, Mertz Glacier, sinking water
Nature, Science & Technology, Wildlife & Flora, Feb 4th, 2010,
Last week it was reported that a group of researchers intended to investigate the Japanese whaling in the Antarctic seas. In particular, they wanted to see if the whales could be studied without killing them; which could be viewed as a challenge to Japan, since they claim they have to hunt and kill hundreds of whales per year, all for the sake of “scientific research”. The researchers deployed from Wellington, New Zealand on Tuesday. Nearly 20 scientists from Australia, France and New Zealand are part of the 6 week expedition, where they will study the whales, their food, and how…
Tags: 6 week expedition, Antarctica, Japanese whale hunting, New Zealand, non-lethal whale research, Ross Sea, scientists, whale research
Nature, Wildlife & Flora, Feb 1st, 2010,
Earlier this month, there was an incident involving the Ady Gil vessel (of the Sea Shepherd fleet) and the Shonan Maru No. 2 (which is with the Japanese whalers). To make a long explanation very short, the Shonan Maru No. 2 rammed the Ady Gil, causing irreparable damage to the vessel and now the Ady Gil is somewhere on the ocean floor. Both sides blame each other for the crash and some form of official intervention is needed. Now that we are more or less up to speed on things, here is where the update on matters begins. Recently, the…
Tags: Ady Gil, Antarctica, australia, investigation, Japanese Whaling, New Zealand, scientific expedition, Sea Shepherd, Shonan Maru No. 2, Whale Wars
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Jan 19th, 2010,
Ice. Oh, the many uses and happenings that involve ice. It keeps your drinks cold. It’s a pain to deal with in winter. It’s been known to put holes in ships and has quite the alarming melt factor as of late. The biggest news happened down at Antarctica. Apparently, a chunk of ice bigger than the size of Rhode Island broke away from Antarctica and then shattered into even more pieces. If you don’t know your US states or geography, Rhode Island is the smallest state. Some people compare this to the size of Yosemite National Park. The event was…
Tags: Antarctica, ice, NASA, Rhode Island, sea ice
Science & Technology, Uncategorized, Wildlife & Flora, Jan 12th, 2010,
Animals all over the planet migrate, from the tiny butterfly to the great whale. However, no other animal migration can compare to that of the Arctic Tern. The Arctic Tern is a type of seabird. They can be found in places around the world; some of which consider them to be a threatened species. They feed on smaller marine animals and can have a particularly long life for a bird—20 to 30 years is not uncommon. Oh, and they migrate an average of 44,000 miles (70,900 km) per year. Arctic Terns follow a rather interesting flight path from their breeding…
Tags: Antarctica, Arctic Tern, bird migration, geolocator, greenland, longest animal migration, migration, migratory route
Uncategorized, Dec 11th, 2009,
Nine years ago a 54 square-mile (about 1,700 km) iceberg broke of an Antarctic ice shelf. Today, almost ten years later, this gigantic chunk of ice is drifting towards western Australia while similarly large icebergs have also been spotted off the coast of New Zealand. While the iceberg was “trapped” for several years east of the Mertz Glacier, it recentlybegan its latest drift northeast. It’s been more than a 100 years since such a big iceberg ever drifted so far away from Antarctica. Scientists are expecting that has the huge iceberg enters warmer waters it will break down in smaller…
Tags: Antarctica, australia, iceberg, melting ice
Climate Change, Nov 28th, 2009,
A new form of migration is taking place and it does not involve any creature of air, sea or land. This movement is of land itself—and one that should not be happening at all. Hundreds of icebergs have broken away from Antarctic ice shelves and are making their way towards New Zealand; which, according to officials, could pose quite the risk to ships in the South Pacific Ocean. Navigation warnings have been issued for the area, even though there are no major shipping lanes or great fishing grounds in those particular waters. However, most ships that do venture out aren’t…
Tags: Antarctica, Climate change, icebergs, large icebergs on the move, migration, New Zealand, South Pacific Ocean
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Nov 14th, 2009,
Here is a bit of news that might shock you: the high loss of ice shelves in Antarctica may actually be a good thing. Lloyd Peck of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) led a group of scientists in a study of the shelves and other activity taking place in the Antarctic. What they discovered is phytoplankton in the newly-exposed areas of sea are absorbing atmospheric and ocean carbon through photosynthesis. Once they’ve absorbed the carbon, they will either be eaten or die and sink to the bottom of the ocean. This carbon sink activity has been occurring more and more…
Tags: Antarctica, carbon emissions, carbon sink, Climate change, global warming, greenhouse gas, ice shelves, ozone, phytoplankton
