
Nearly two dozen research teams collaborated to study polar ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica and discovered definitively that they have added 11mm to global sea levels since 1992, melting ever more quickly.

The shells of marine snails – known as pteropods – living in the seas around Antarctica are being dissolved by ocean acidification according to a new study published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience. These tiny animals are a valuable food source for fish and birds and play an important role in the oceanic carbon cycle.

Antarctica Day was inaugurated in 2010 to celebrate the 1st December 1959 signature of the Antarctic Treaty, which was adopted “with the interests of science and the progress of all mankind.”

Visiting Chilean president Sabastian Piñera and PM David Cameron reaffirmed the two countries long standing close relations, pledged to increase trade and acknowledged their views on the Falkland Islands and the coming referendum during a meeting on Thursday at 10 Downing Street.

The Royal Navy ice patrol ship HMS Protector on her route to the Falklands and Antarctica, has visited the remote South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha to conduct the first systematic survey of the British Overseas Territory since the 1970s.

Plans to merge the British Antarctic Survey (closely linked to the Falkland Islands) and the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) have been ruled out, Science minister David Willetts announced. In a written statement he said the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) had decided not to proceed with the proposal.

Governments meeting in Australia have failed to reach agreement on new marine protected areas for the Antarctic Ocean. A decision has been deferred until July 2013 when all the relevant science will be considered.

The average area covered by the Antarctic ozone hole this year was the second smallest in the last 20 years, according to data from NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites. Scientists attribute the change to warmer temperatures in the Antarctic lower stratosphere.

A team from the government of South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands was in Norway during September to advance in the planning for the reindeer eradication project which is expected to begin on New Year and to discuss about the krill fishery, reports the South Georgia Newsletter September edition.

There are impressive plans to mark the centenary of British explorer Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 Endurance expedition with a search for the wreck of the vessel on the sea floor in the Weddell Sea and a feature film based on the failed expedition, shipwreck and subsequent survival and heroic rescue the stranded men.