At the South Pole, considered the coldest point on Earth, temperatures are rising fast. So fast, in fact, that Kyle Clem and other climate researchers began to worry and wonder whether human-driven climate change was playing a bigger role than expected in Antarctica.
Scientists have discovered that summer sea ice (*) in the Weddell Sea area of Antarctica has decreased by one million square kilometres – an area twice the size of Spain – in the last five years, with implications for the marine ecosystem. The findings are published this month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
The Pew Charitable Trusts expressed disappointment that for an eighth consecutive year, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) ended its annual meeting without designating marine protections in the waters off East Antarctica. Member governments also failed to reach consensus on the designation of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Weddell Sea and Antarctic Peninsula.
Thousands of emperor penguin chicks drowned when the sea-ice on which they were being raised was destroyed in severe weather. The catastrophe occurred in 2016 in Antarctica's Weddell Sea. Scientists say the colony at the edge of the Brunt Ice Shelf has collapsed with adult birds showing no sign of trying to re-establish the population.
In 2014-2015, to mark the centenary of the Battle of the Falklands, Mensun Bound, a Falkland Islander himself, led an expedition to try to find Admiral Graff von Spee’s lost cruiser squadron in 1914, the whereabouts of which has become one the great mysteries of the maritime world. Now he is resuming the hunt. Mercopress began by asking how it all began.
Glaciology experts have issued evidence that a large section of the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica, which is home to the British Antarctic Survey's Halley Research Station, is about break off. The rifting started several years ago and is now approaching its final phase.
South African icebreaker Agulhas II, 05.24 hours GMT. Ice Pilot Freddie Ligthelm over ship’s intercom: “Good Morning from the Bridge. This is to say we have reached the Endurance sinking position. Lekker Lekker Lekker [Afrikaans for “Nice, Nice, Nice”]”
Following on from Penguin News’ interview last week with Islander Mensun Bound, who was involved in the search for the Argentine submarine Ara San Juan, Mr Bound spoke of his current project, the search for Shackleton’s ship Endurance.
An Antarctic scientific expedition aiming to understand the secrets of a giant iceberg will also attempt to locate Ernest Shackleton’s stricken Endurance in the Weddell Sea, according to reports in The Guardian.
Nasa has released a striking photo of a rectangular iceberg floating in the Weddell Sea off Antarctica. The US space agency said the object's sharp angles and flat surface suggested it had recently broken away from an ice shelf. The edges are still pointed, and have not yet been worn down by the ocean waves.