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Crystal balls at the South Pole. (Photo: Eli Duke/CC BY-SA 2.0)It sounds like the premise for a riddle: At the South Pole are two crystal balls that provides unfailingly accurate information—not about the future, but about the past. This is no trick. It's just meteorology. The dual glass spheres at the South Pole are Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorders, orbs that capture the number of hours of direct sunlight each day, as well as its intensity.Sunshine recorders first came about in the 1850s, thanks to John Francis Campbell—the Campbell in Campbell-Stokes. Around 1853, Campbell, a Scottish author who focused on Celtic folklore, developed a desire to quantify...

Fourteen million years ago the now lifeless valleys were tundra, similar to parts of Alaska, Canada and Siberia — cold but able to support life, researchers report. The moss was essentially freeze dried, he said. Unlike fossils, where minerals replace soft materials, the moss tissues were still there, he said. "The really cool thing is that all the details are still there," even though the plant has been dead for 14 million years. "These are actually the plant tissues themselves." ==================================================== And they redicule me for believing in the bible ... 14 million years, ya right

Moss Landing researchers reveal iron as key to climate change -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PRESS RELEASE APRIL 15, 2004 EMBARGOED: Not for release until Thursday, 15 April 2004 at 14:00 Eastern Time MOSS LANDING RESEARCHERS REVEAL IRON AS KEY TO CLIMATE CHANGE MOSS LANDING, California - A remarkable expedition to the waters of Antarctica reveals that iron supply to the Southern Ocean may have controlled Earth's climate during past ice ages. A multi-institutional group of scientists, led by Dr. Kenneth Coale of Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML) and Dr. Ken Johnson of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), fertilized two key areas...

LINK West Antartic Ice Sheet began melting away 10,000 years ago: study WASHINGTON (AFP) Jan 04, 2003 The West Antartic Ice Sheet began melting away some 10,000 years ago and should continue to shrink, according to a study released Friday. A team of researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle found that rock fragments were left behind by glaciers that disappeared over 10,000 years ago, according to the study out Friday in the latest issue of Science. "This work establishes a background pattern of steady decline in the West Antarctic ice sheet," said John Stone, an associate professor of...

Everything about tardigrades sounds like a riddle: What creature can survive both freezing and boiling temperatures; you can't see it, but it's everywhere; it can survive outer space; and after being dried up for years, it can reanimate in water within a few minutes? The answer is just as puzzling: tardigrades, which are also called "water bears" or "moss piglets," are aquatic, microscopic invertebrates that have recently captivated evolutionary biologists and science enthusiasts alike for their unique ability to withstand extreme conditions. There is photographic evidence too that tardigrades are adorable. Now, researchers at the University of North Carolina at...

Adam Korbitz writes "New Scientist and Science Daily are reporting the results of an intriguing experiment in which scientists launched tardigrades or 'water bears' — tiny invertebrates about one millimeter long — into space onboard the European Space Agency's FOTON-M3 spacecraft. After 10 days in the vacuum of space, the satellite returned to Earth and the tardigrades were recovered. The tardigrades survived the vacuum just fine, but exposure to the Sun's ultraviolet radiation proved deadly for most of the water bears. However, some did survive. The tardigrades are the first animals to have survived such an experiment, a feat previously...

We’ve all found wrapped-but-unlabeled steaks that have been buried in a deep, dark crevice of a freezer for an unknown number of years and have attempted to revive them to a state where they can be grilled and served with copious amounts of steak sauce. Scientists with the British Antarctic Survey and the University of Reading would scoff at this trivial effort. They dug into the Antarctic permafrost and extracted frozen moss that they determined, using carbon dating, to have been frozen for over 1500 years. The icy moss was placed in an incubator, given an ideal environment and, within...

Scientists are warning that the West Antarctic ice sheet could collapse, potentially causing sea levels to rise more than 49 feet by 2500. The study published in the journal Nature this week, cites the impact of greenhouse gas emissions over the coming decades. Collapsing Antarctic ice could cause sea levels to rise more than 3 feet by 2100, say co-authors Rob DeConto, a geoscientist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and David Pollard, a palaeoclimatologist at Pennsylvania State University in University Park. If emissions continue unabated, the scientists warn, atmospheric warming will soon become a “dominant driver” of ice loss,...

Ancient Cataclysm Rearranged Pacific Map, Study Says Julian Ryall for National Geographic NewsOctober 24, 2007 A cataclysm 50 million years ago changed the face of the planet from the Hawaiian Islands to Antarctica, according to new research. The collapse of an underwater mountain range in the Pacific Ocean turned Australia into a warm and sunny continent instead of a snowbound wasteland and created some of the islands that dot the South Pacific today. "We have found that the destruction of an entire mid-ocean ridge, known as the Izanagi Ridge, initiated a chain reaction of geological events," said Joanne Whittaker, a...

Antarctica is known for frigid temperatures, parading penguins and now... being “the world’s first LGBT-friendly continent”?That’s right — at least if Planting Peace has anything to say about it.The non-profit advocacy organization, which created the pro-queer rainbow Equality House adjacent to the Westboro Baptist Church compound in Topeka, Kansas, recently traveled across Antarctica carrying a Pride flag in a symbolic effort to declare full human rights for all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people living in or visiting Antartica. The gesture is also meant to raise awareness about securing equality for queer people on a global level.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A meteor's roaring crash into Antarctica -- larger and earlier than the impact that killed the dinosaurs -- caused the biggest mass extinction in Earth's history and likely spawned the Australian continent, scientists said. Ohio State University scientists said the 483-kilometer-wide (300-mile-wide) crater is now hidden more than 1.6 kilometers (one mile) beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. "Gravity measurements that reveal its existence suggest that it could date back about 250 million years -- the time of the Permian-Triassic extinction, when almost all animal life on Earth died out," the university said in a statement Thursday....

Two hundred and fifty million years ago, the majority of life on earth may have suffocated. The "Great Dying," a catastrophic event that killed 90 percent of Earth's marine life and 75 percent of the life on land, was caused by a combination of warmer temperatures and lower oxygen levels, according to a recent study by researchers at the University of Washington. In other words, the extinction was precipitated by global warming, rather than an asteroid collision, the reigning theory. The findings, to be published in the magazine Science, are largely based on comparisons of fossils found in South Africa's...

Antarctica is known by meteorite specialists as a fruitful hunting ground, because the rocks are collected from their landing sites by glacial flows and transported to concentrated dumping-grounds. ... Among this Antarctic haul, however, researchers have noticed that iron-rich meteorites - whether partly or wholly made of the metal - are surprisingly scarce, compared to the percentage collected in other places around the world. Dr Joy and her colleagues think they may have discovered why. They froze two small meteorites of similar size and shape, one made of iron and the other rocky and non-metallic, inside blocks of ice. A...

The oceans are rising faster than at any point in the last 28 centuries, and human emissions of greenhouse gases are primarily responsible, scientists reported Monday. They added that the flooding that is starting to make life miserable in many coastal towns - like Miami Beach; Norfolk, Va.; and Charleston, S.C. - was largely a consequence of those emissions, and that it is likely to grow worse in coming years. The ocean could rise as much as three or four feet by 2100, as ocean water expands and the great ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica begin to collapse. Experts...

After a year-and-a-half long voyage aboard the International Space Station, a group of fungi collected from Antarctica has proven its ability to withstand harsh, Mars-like conditions. More than half of the cells remained intact over the course of the 18-month study, providing new insight for the possibility of life on Mars. These fungal samples, along with lichens from Spain and Austria, have allowed European researchers to assess the survivability and stability of microscopic lifeforms on the red planet. The tiny fungi taken from Antarctica are typically found in the cracks of rocks in this dry, hostile region. Scientists took samples...

A friend of the Duke of Cambridge has died attempting to make a solo crossing of Antarctica to raise money for one of the Duke's charities. Kensington Palace announced that Henry Worsley, 55, died in hospital in Chile, where he had undergone surgery after falling ill with bacterial peritonitis just 30 miles short of his goal. The Duke, who was Patron of the expedition, said he was "incredibly proud" of the former SAS officer's effort, which raised more than £100,000 for the Endeavour Fund, part of the Duke's Royal Foundation charity. Mr Worsley was trying to complete the journey that...

The worlds largest canyon may lie deep beneath the ice sheets on Antarctica, according to a new discovery by UK scientists. While the depth of the discovery is comparative to the Grand Canyon it dwarfs the US landmark by 555km in length. Satellite data recovered by a team of scientists led by Durham University revealed the previously unknown canyon system which is thought to be more than 1000km long and 1km deep buried under several kilometres of ice. While the discovery is yet to be confirmed by direct measurements, researchers believe the canyon beneath the ice sheet may be so...

The biggest icebergs breaking off Antarctica unexpectedly help to slow global warming as they melt away into the chill Southern Ocean, scientists said Monday. The rare Manhattan-sized icebergs, which may become more frequent in coming decades because of climate change, release a vast trail of iron and other nutrients that act as fertilizers for algae and other tiny plant-like organisms in the ocean. These extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow, a natural ally for human efforts to limit the pace of climate change blamed on manmade greenhouse gas emissions. Ocean blooms in the wake of giant icebergs...

On a glacier-filled island with fjords and elephant seals, Russia has built Antarctica’s first Orthodox church on a hill overlooking its research base, transporting the logs all the way from Siberia. Less than an hour away by snowmobile, Chinese laborers have updated the Great Wall Station, a linchpin in China’s plan to operate five bases on Antarctica, complete with an indoor badminton court, domes to protect satellite stations and sleeping quarters for 150 people. Not to be outdone, India’s futuristic new Bharathi base, built on stilts using 134 interlocking shipping containers, resembles a spaceship. Turkey and Iran have announced plans...

From the file of “Things that would really be catastrophic”. Did a meteor have a role in a major shift in Earth’s Climate?The start of the Quaternary period (2.588 million years ago, where the Pliocene became Pleistocene) coincides with evidence of a mega tsunami in the South Pacific.The Eltanin Meteor fell into the South Pacific 2.5 million years ago setting off a (likely) tsunami that was hundreds of meters high and theoretically pushed mass material into the atmosphere which may have contributed to the cooling the globe had already started on. This meteor was hard to detect because it hit...