The entire Great Lakes, shared by Canada and the United States is at 88.8% ice coverage, with the highest totals coming from Lake Huron and Lake Erie at about 96% ice coverage according to Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, part of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA.
A volcano in Villarrica, southern Chile erupted early Tuesday morning, spewing lava into the sky and causing about 3,500 people to evacuate. The volcano, which is one of South America's most active, sent ash and smoke 3,300 feet into the air at about 3 a.m. local time. It did not cause any injuries to people or damage to infrastructure, according to the Chilean e-news Emol.com.
More than €6 million has been made available to European Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) some of which can be accessed for environmental projects within the Falkland Islands, according to a report from the Penguin News last edition.
The men and women of HMS Protector have helped the South Georgia Government by carrying out a beach cleanup and glacier survey. 700 miles east of the Falklands, South Georgia is a crescent shaped island with magnificent scenery and wildlife. But over the years debris from several shipwrecks has been washed up on the island’s beaches.
The Falkland Islands historic link as the gateway for British Antarctic exploration was acknowledged this week with the dedication in Stanley's Dockyard Point of the southern component of a unique memorial to the 28 men and one woman of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), and before that the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS) who have perished in the Antarctic since the establishment by the British Government of the first permanent research base there in 1944.
The Antarctic Wildlife Research Fund (AWR) was unveiled at a ceremony in Australia, with the aim of strengthening the scientific basis for the management of the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic Region.
Penguins can taste only sour and salty food, scientists have discovered. A genetic study suggests the flightless birds lost three of the five basic tastes long ago in evolution. Taste is critical for survival in most animals, but may not matter in the penguin, which swallows fish whole, say researchers in China and the US.
Bitterly cold air from Siberia has brought dangerously frigid and likely record-setting temperatures to the eastern half of the US. Temperatures are 20 to 40 degrees F below normal for February from the Mid-Atlantic to the South.
Ahead of the May 7 British general election, a coalition of conservationists and high-profile supporters has called upon the UK government to create three marine reserves that together would more than double the world’s protected waters, reports Inhabitat.
China is preparing to mark 30 years of polar expeditions, when on 20 February 1985 opened its first permanent research station in Antarctica, The Great Wall on King George Island. Since then China has continued to advance and is now planning the fifth permanent station.