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The ship will be ceremonially commissioned in August in Juneau, Alaska, which is the vessel’s homeport. Until then, the icebreaker and two others will be berthed in Seattle, Washington, until infrastructure improvements are made at the ships’ homeport. ... The U.S. Coast Guard’s newest polar icebreaker is officially operational, which the agency says will bolster its Arctic operations. The 360-foot-long icebreaker departed from its assembly port in Pascagoula, Mississippi and was headed to Seattle, where it will be based until renovations are completed at its homeport in Juneau, Alaska. ... The USCGC Storis will join the USCGC Polar Star and...

The U.S. military and Coast Guard are monitoring the simultaneous appearance of five Chinese icebreaking vessels in the Arctic region near Alaska. That unprecedented presence represents two and a half times the number of icebreakers currently capable of being operated in the entire Arctic region by the U.S. Coast Guard. Another is scheduled to be commissioned on Sunday and plans are underway to build dozens more. The Chinese icebreakers, which include a number of research-focused types, are being monitored by North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM), a NORTHCOM spokesperson told The War Zone Thursday evening....

A massive, magnitude 8.0 earthquake jolted South America on Friday morning, following which a tsunami risk was being evaluated. Unconfirmed reports suggested the earthquake jolted Drake Passage, a body of water located between the southern tip of South America and Antarctica. Multiple reports also suggested the magnitude of the earthquake was later downgraded to 7.5. While there were no immediate reports of any damage or injuries, reports suggested the earthquake hit the southern part of America at 2.16 am UTC, 7.46 am as per the Indian Standard Time.

In 1985, a unique skull was discovered lying on Yamana Beach at Cape Shirreff in Antarctica's South Shetland Islands. It belonged to an indigenous woman from southern Chile in her early 20s, thought to have died between 1819 and 1825. It was the oldest known human remains ever found in Antarctica.The location of the discovered skull was unexpected. It was found at a beach camp made by sealers in the early 19th Century near remnants of her femur bone, yet female sealers were unheard of at the time. There are no surviving documents explaining how or why a young woman...

The mystery behind a missing British researcher in Antarctica has been solved. The remains of Dennis Bell, who went missing in Antarctica, have been found on a glacier. Bell went missing in 1959 in Antarctica while working as a meteorologist for the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey. CBS News reported more in-depth details on the discovery of the researcher: The remains of a British researcher who vanished in 1959 in Antarctica when he was 25 years old were discovered amid rocks near a receding glacier and identified using DNA analysis, the British Antarctic Survey said Monday. Dennis “Tink” Bell had been...

Planet Earth continues to hide a plethora of secrets that our modern science still seems far from uncovering. One of the most mysterious regions of our world is the southern pole, the Antarctica, where a group of researchers has now found ‘strange radio waves coming from below the ice’.

Why this story matters.. The discovery of a prehistoric river valley and forested landscape beneath the East Antarctic ice sheet sheds light on the continent's ancient climate and may improve scientific understanding of Antarctica's response to climate change. Ancient Antarctic landscape.. Uncovering evidence of rivers, valleys, and dense forests beneath Antarctica can enhance understanding of the continent's prehistoric environment and biodiversity. Climate history and change.. The findings provide valuable information about past warm and even tropical conditions, aiding scientists like in predicting how the Antarctic ice sheet might react to future climate shifts. Warm climate.. Researchers believe Antarctica featured a...

Deep beneath the thick ice that covers East Antarctica, scientists are revealing new discoveries about a mystery that has been hidden beneath the continent’s frozen exterior for half a billion years. According to newly published research, clues to the formation of a mountain range the size of the Alps tucked away below Antarctic ice are being revealed, offering geologists a unique glimpse at the processes behind their formation. The Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains, initially discovered by Soviet scientists during an expedition in 1958, have puzzled researchers for decades. Now, these massive features beneath Antarctica’s frozen surface, which were formed long ago...

Our southernmost continent is, we’ve been told, the suffocating canary in the global coal mine. The more ice loss in Antarctica, the greater trouble we’re in. So what do we make of a study which found that between 2021 and 2023, there was a record-breaking increase in the Antarctic Ice Sheet? We mark it down as another in a long line of misses from the global warming zealots. “Notably, four major glaciers in the Wilkes Land–Queen Mary Land region of East Antarctica reversed their previous pattern of accelerated mass loss from 2011 to 2020 and instead showed significant mass gain...

"Leafy moss dated to the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) has been found embedded in Antarctic glacier ice that today is “permanently snow-covered” with “no evidence of meltwater....This affirms a warmer MWP and that summer melt during the MWP was greater than today...The leafy moss samples have been dated to about 1,000 years ago"

Nine members of an Antarctic expedition are locked up together at a research station 2,000 miles from civilization. And one of them is a madman — accused of violently beating, threatening and sexually harassing at least two of his teammates. The Post can reveal that the South African crew of three women and six men includes a glamorous doctor with her own skincare line and a deputy team leader who helped produce a short horror film during a previous stay at the station — along with engineers and a meteorologist. The identity of the crew member believed to have snapped...

A group of scientists trapped in a tiny base in Antarctica have sent an email pleading to be rescued after they say a member of their team threatened to kill another colleague. A South African research group dispatched to Sanae IV base, a research station in Antarctica, are isolated on their mission for at least 10 more months. Extreme weather makes leaving and entering nearly impossible and there are thousands of miles between the team and their home continent. This leaves the group with only each other for company in the absence of animals, other humans and society as they...

A group of South African scientists has pleaded for help, saying they are trapped in an isolated base on a cliff edge in Antarctica with a team member who has become violent. One of the team has been accused of assault and threatening violence against his colleagues, according to the South African newspaper The Sunday Times. South Africa's environment minister confirmed that an assault had taken place. Why It Matters The overwintering team, a group that remains in a remote and extreme environment during winter months, knew that 10 of their 15 months at the base would be spent in...

Recently, the incoming Trump administration has expressed a desire to expand the territory of the United States. One option for achieving this is the annexation of Marie Byrd Land, a region of Antarctica that is currently unclaimed by any nation and whose exploration was pioneered by the U.S. Annexing this land can be done in a realistically achievable manner and would deliver practical gains. Marie Byrd Land is a region in West Antarctica that currently comprises the largest unclaimed piece of land on the surface of Earth. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) describes it as stretching east of the Ross...

A group of isolated researchers has been stranded for months on end in the most inhospitable environment – until one of the team members goes rogue, sexually harassing and eventually threatening to kill a female colleague. That could be the plot of a successful thriller or horror film. Still, unfortunately, this is reportedly what’s happening in real life to a group of South African scientists trapped in the tiny Sanae IV base in Antarctica. The story broke in the outer world because a member of the research station sent out an email to a major newspaper pleading for rescue after...

Sensational new discoveries arising from long-forgotten early aerial photographs indicate that ice has remained stable and even grown slightly since the 1930s over a 2,000 km stretch of East Antarctica. In a recent paper published in Nature Communications, researchers from the University of Copenhagen came to their conclusions by tracking glacial movement in an area with as much ice as the Greenland ice sheet. The findings are unlikely to feature in narrative-driven mainstream media. The silence will probably replicate the response to another recent paper that found the ice shelves surrounding Antarctica grew in overall size from 2009-2019. The Copenhagen...

Scientists have drilled 1.7 miles deep into Antarctica, pulling up an ice core sample that dates back at least 1.2 million years. They expect the sample to offer new insights into the evolution of Earth’s climate and atmosphere throughout history. A team of 16 scientists and support staffers spent four summers drilling through Antarctic ice until they finally reached bedrock. To accomplish their goal, they endured average temperatures of -25.6 degrees Fahrenheit at a site known as Little Dome C, located near Concordia Research Station. They removed the ice core in pieces, which they will load onto an icebreaker ship...

Tony Heller @TonyClimate Antarctic sea ice extent is 17% higher today than it was in 1979. Ice doesn't lie, but climate scientists do. https://noaadata.apps.nsidc.org/NOAA/G02135/south/daily/images/1979/12_Dec/S_19791224_extn_v3.0.png https://noaadata.apps.nsidc.org/NOAA/G02135/south/daily/images/2024/12_Dec/S_20241224_extn_v3.0.png

Legendary Grand Funk Railroad frontman Mark Farner opens up about the day he died - TWICE - and what he saw on the other side. Farner shares his near-death experience (NDE), describing in vivid detail what it was like to "leave his body" and cross over into the afterlife. This is Mark Farner like you've never heard him before—reflecting on life, death, and his incredible journey back.Mark has a brand new album, Closer To My Home, his first new release since 2006, available to pre-order now, check it out!Grand Funk Legend Died & Saw the Afterlife – Mark Farner Tells...

The expedition was carried out in regions of drifting ice in West Antarctica in 2022. On the return visit in 2024, Ran disappeared without a trace under the ice. Credit: Filip Stedt Using the unmanned submarine Ran, researchers mapped the underside of West Antarctica’s Dotson Ice Shelf, uncovering complex ice formations and significant melt areas driven by underwater currents, crucial for enhancing sea level rise predictions. An international research team from the University of Gothenburg deployed the unmanned submarine ‘Ran’ beneath the thick ice of Antarctica. They received the first-ever detailed maps of the underside of a glacier, providing valuable...