Antarctica

A rare surge in Antarctic snowfall temporarily added hundreds of billions of tons of ice to East Antarctica, even as the continent’s long-term losses continued. Credit: Shutterstock A tropical warming event helped drive record snowfall and a temporary 695-billion-ton ice gain in East Antarctica without reversing long-term Antarctic ice loss.…

A single fossilized footprint found in volcanic mud on a remote Antarctic island is the first known trackway from a mammal in Antarctica, and the earliest evidence anywhere on the continent of a carnivorous mammal. Track-bearing slab T-373 from King George Island, Antarctica. Sclae bar – 10 mm. Image credit:…

One evening, my husband was scrolling through a running list of countries Wilder had visited on his phone when he looked up and said, “We should probably just go for seven by seven.” Wilder was five and had already been to five continents. We had never set out to make…

After the Solar System formed around 4.6 billion years ago, it transformed from a spherical cloud of gas and dust into a flattened disk. The cloud’s collapse eventually brought forth the sun and the planets, giving the Solar System its defining shape. While gravity is often cited as the primary…

Scientists have found a new explanation for why Antarctica became covered in ice millions of years before the Arctic. The international study, published in Science, addresses a long-standing climate mystery: how Antarctica could develop a massive ice sheet at a time when Earth was around 5ºC warmer than it is…

The frozen landscape of Antarctica is holding a dangerous metal. The continent is releasing higher levels of mercury into the ocean and marine ecosystem because of climate change, and the toxic metal is accumulating in the region’s wildlife, causing health problems in the food chain. Mercury has also reached the…

Australian specialist aviation operator Skytraders evacuated an American from McMurdo Station in Antartica on July 31. The American was transported to Christchurch, New Zealand, where they were receiving medical treatment as of Friday. Photo courtesy Skytraders Aug. 7 (UPI) -- An American was evacuated from Antarctica to a New Zealand…

Long space missions can force small crews to endure isolation, cramped living conditions, and intense psychological pressure for months at a time. To better understand how those conditions shape teamwork, an international research group studied a ten-month overwintering mission at Concordia Station in Antarctica. The research was led by Jan…

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The people wintering at Concordia Research Station spend four months without sunlight and live beyond the reach of aircraft. Once winter sets in, no plane can reach the Antarctic base, and the nearest other people are about 370 miles (600 kilometres) away at Vostok Station, according to the European Space…