Antarctica

• Monday, June 9th 2014 - 21:38 UTC

  “In the Shadow of Shackleton’s Cross; An Antarctic Memoir”

  

  Author: Beverley McLeod - A charming, well-written and informative book about the author’s childhood experiences in South Georgia. Born in Stanley in 1951, Beverley McLeod lived on South Georgia between 1957 and 1961, where her father was a radio operator at King Edward Point for the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey.

• Friday, June 6th 2014 - 02:38 UTC

  Science and tourism combine in support of Wandering Albatross

  

  In a superb development for science and tourism in South Georgia, Cheesemans’ Ecology Safaris is offering the opportunity for 7 people to join a scientific trip on the Hans Hansson surveying South Georgia’s wandering albatross.

• Wednesday, June 4th 2014 - 20:53 UTC

  IAATO celebrates 25th meeting with growing membership and review of ports services

  

  The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) met in Providence, Rhode Island from 27-29 May for their 25th gathering of members and as at previous meetings, the goal was to review the past year and discuss current and future issues for the Antarctic tourism industry in line with the association’s mission to advocate, promote and practice safe and environmentally responsible tourism.

• Wednesday, May 28th 2014 - 22:12 UTC

  Seven years and 650 million dollars later, Argentine icebreaker Irizar still under repairs

  

  The Argentine government is putting pressure on contractors so that the Navy's flagship icebreaker Almirante Irizar, partially destroyed by fire in 2007, can begin sea trials later this year. However over-costs and mismanagement of the funds invested, estimated at over 650 million dollars, could have purchased a new vessel of three second hand according to critics in Congress.

• Wednesday, May 28th 2014 - 22:04 UTC

  Antarctica ice sheet melting episodes have occurred over the last 14.000 years, say scientists

  

  A new study has found that the Antarctic Ice Sheet began melting about 5,000 years earlier than previously thought coming out of the last ice age, and that shrinkage of the vast ice sheet accelerated during eight distinct episodes, causing rapid sea level rise.

• Wednesday, May 28th 2014 - 00:27 UTC

  Antarctica visitors up 9% in 2013/14 season, totaling 37.405, according to IATTO

  

  The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) announced its tourism figures for the 2013-2014 season, on the first day of its 25th Annual Meeting in Providence, Rhode Island. The total number was 37.405, up 9% with a growing prevalence of Chinese visitors.

• Saturday, May 24th 2014 - 09:25 UTC

  South Georgia releases three new coins: one of them to honor Prince George

  

  Three new South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands government coin designs have been released in recent months. The birth of His Royal Highness the Prince of Cambridge is marked by the release of a coin dated 2013, which is based on a coin originally released the previous year.

• Thursday, May 22nd 2014 - 12:41 UTC

  History of whaling in South Georgia and its impact revealed with DNA samples

  

  Bones that have littered the beaches of South Georgia for a hundred years since the animals were killed by whalers are now being used to establish what species of whale were being hunted, reports South Georgia’s April Newsletter.

• Tuesday, May 20th 2014 - 08:19 UTC

  Antarctica ice sheet loss has doubled since 2010, shows CryoSat satellite

  

  The Antarctic ice sheet has lost ice twice as quickly in the past three years as when it was last surveyed between 2005 and 2010, say scientists. Results from the CryoSat-2 satellite mission, published Monday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, say the largest ice sheet on Earth is now losing 159 billion tons of ice each year.

• Wednesday, May 14th 2014 - 00:15 UTC

  West Antarctica glaciers' melting 'have passed the point of no return', says NASA study

  

  A new study by researchers at NASA and the University of California, Irvine, finds a rapidly melting section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet appears to be in an irreversible state of decline, with nothing to stop the glaciers in this area from melting into the sea.