Tag: British Antarctic Survey (BAS)

• Friday, October 16th 2026 - 13:59 UTC

  Royal Navy urged to replace defective Ice Patrol HMS Protector

  

  The Royal Navy's only ice patrol vessel has been towed into Devonport, reportedly with a double engine failure, raising fresh concerns over how the news will be interpreted by Argentina. HMS Protector fulfils an icebreaking role to monitor the demilitarized Antarctic and support safe navigation for scientific research in challenging conditions.

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• Monday, October 12th 2026 - 07:04 UTC

  BAS researchers uncover chinstrap penguins massive colony decline in Antarctic volcanic island

  

  A remote volcanic island near Antarctica has lost its title of largest penguin colony in the world, as new research reveals massive population declines, igniting fears for species’ survival. Researchers from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have uncovered the loss of over half a million chinstrap penguins from the Antarctic island of Zavodovski in the South Sandwich Islands.

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• Friday, July 10th 2026 - 18:51 UTC

  British Antarctic Survey confirms Antarctica's first dinosaur fossil, 40 years on

  

  A bone collected in Antarctica four decades ago has been identified as the first dinosaur fossil found on the continent, according to a study published in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. It is a tail vertebra from a titanosaur, the group of long-necked sauropods that includes the largest land animals that ever lived.

• Thursday, February 5th 2026 - 00:36 UTC

  The RRS Shackleton incident when an Argentine destroyer opened fire on the research vessel

  

  On this day but in 1976 a very serious incident occurred in the South West Atlantic when the British research vessel RRS Shackleton was intercepted and fired upon by the Argentine destroyer ARA Almirante Storni, some 78 miles south of Cape Pembroke in the Falkland Islands.

• Wednesday, January 21st 2026 - 13:16 UTC

  UK investment in Antarctica underlines role as a leading polar research nation

  

  A major new British Antarctic Survey (BAS) facility at Rothera Research Station is being presented as evidence of the UK’s standing in polar research. The £100 million Discovery Building—together with a new services network at Rothera—has been formally opened by BAS Director Professor Dame Jane Francis, completing what BAS describes as the largest UK construction project ever carried out in Antarctica.

• Monday, November 17th 2025 - 21:16 UTC

  Avian flu decimates seal elephant population in South Georgia; few survivors emerge in Uruguayan beaches

  

  In the last few months there have been at least twenty incidents of elephant seals emerging along Uruguayan beaches, both females and males, and allegedly they belong to “deep South species”, according to local environmental and animal protection organizations such as “FaunaMarinaSOS”.

• Monday, November 3rd 2025 - 19:52 UTC

  Discovery Building, a milestone for Rothera Base and BAS in Antarctica

  

  The 2025/2026 Antarctic season is a landmark for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and its Antarctic Infrastructure Modernization Project (AIMP), as the new Discovery Building begins to take on its operational role. Specialist teams will be on site from this month to check the building’s critical systems are working as expected and to carefully manage the removal of six older structures, the functions of which are now integrated within the Discovery Building.

• Tuesday, August 12th 2025 - 06:40 UTC

  Antarctic researcher remains, working for Falklands’ Dependency, 66 years ago, found in receding glacier

  

  The remains of an Antarctic researcher have been discovered by a Polish team among rocks exposed by a receding glacier in Antarctica. They are identified by DNA as those of Dennis ‘Tink’ Bell, a 25 year-old meteorologist who was working for the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS), the predecessor of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). He died in a crevasse on a glacier at Admiralty Bay on King George Island, situated off the Antarctic Peninsula on 26 July 1959. His body was never recovered.

• Saturday, August 2nd 2025 - 08:30 UTC

  BAS research links ocean tides when Antarctica icebergs calve

  

  A new study has revealed that ocean tides can directly influence when large Antarctic icebergs break off from the ice shelves surrounding the continent, a process known as calving. The research marks a major step toward accurately forecasting ice loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet and improving projections of global sea level rise.

• Wednesday, June 18th 2025 - 05:27 UTC

  Antarctica Emperor penguin population decreasing faster than expected, satellite imagery

  

  Antarctica’s emperor penguin population may be decreasing faster than some of the most pessimistic predictions. A new analysis of up-to-date satellite imagery suggests the birds’ numbers declined 22% over a 15-year period (2009 to 2024) in a key sector of the continent – encompassing the Antarctic Peninsula, Weddell Sea and Bellingshausen Sea.