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The sea-ice surrounding Antarctica is well below any previous recorded winter level, satellite data shows, a worrying new benchmark for a region that once seemed resistant to global warming. "It's so far outside anything we've seen, it's almost mind-blowing," says Walter Meier, who monitors sea-ice with the National Snow and Ice Data Center. An unstable Antarctica could have far-reaching consequences, polar experts warn. Antarctica's huge ice expanse regulates the planet's temperature, as the white surface reflects the Sun's energy back into the atmosphere and also cools the water beneath and near

Eric Hecker is a whistleblower, who has testified to Congress, under oath about what he saw while working at the South Pole. Yes in Antartica. Hecker is former Navy and defense contractor for Raytheon. While working at the South Pole Eric witnessed some stunning things, including directed energy weapons and other technologies that can trigger earthquakes. What he saw was illegal, off the books and unknown to Congress and many in the Pentagon.

In a year of extreme heat, Antarctica's last six months were the coldest on record. "For the polar darkness period, from April through September, the average temperature was -60.9 degrees Celsius, a record for those months," the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) said. The last six months is also the darkest period at the South Pole, which is where the name polar darkness (also called polar night) comes from. Here, the sun sets for the last time around the spring equinox, and does not rise again until near the autumn equinox six months later. For the entire Antarctic...

The 130-year-old exploration and education non-profit marked World Oceans Day on Tuesday by declaring that the waters around Antarctica will now be known as the Southern Ocean — the planet’s fifth ocean. “The Southern Ocean has long been recognized by scientists, but because there was never agreement internationally, we never officially recognized it,” National Geographic Society Geographer Alex Tait said. “It’s sort of geographic nerdiness in some ways,” Tait said. “We’ve always labeled it, but we labeled it slightly differently (than other oceans). This change was taking the last step and saying we want to recognize it because of its...

Of the 217 people tested aboard the Greg Mortimer cruise ship, 128 came back positive for COVID-19, while 89 tested negative, the Aurora Expeditions cruise line confirmed. The Australia-based company said all passengers and crew that have tested positive did not have fevers, and were asymptomatic as of Tuesday. The Greg Mortimer, which is currently off the coast of Uruguay, departed on March 15 for a voyage to Antarctica and the island of South Georgia, but has been anchored off the coast near Montevideo since late March, after authorities in Uruguay blocked the ship from disembarking over coronavirus concerns, the...

Its last known position was about 390 nautical miles from Punta Arenas and 280 nautical miles from the Antarctic base, according to the Air Force. There were 17 crew members and 21 other passengers on board, who were on their way to perform "logistical support tasks" such as repairing the floating oil pipeline that provides fuel for the base, said the Air Force. In addition to crew members, the plane was also carrying personnel from the armed forces, an engineering firm, and the University of Magallanes. After the plane lost contact, the Air Force declared a state of alert and...

An Antarctic greenhouse known as EDEN ISS not only survived the polar night but emerged from it with a harvest for local researchers, thus providing hope that future Mars colonists could also enjoy fresh food during their time on the Red Planet, German Aerospace Center (DLR) officials said in a statement. Regularly withstanding temperatures below minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 40 degrees Celsius), the greenhouse provided herbs, lettuce and other vegetables to 10 people who were riding out the winter in the remote station, called the Alfred Wegener Institute's Neumayer Station III. It's the first time the greenhouse operated through...

A mantle plume producing almost as much heat as Yellowstone supervolcano appears to be melting part of West Antarctica from beneath. Researchers at NASA have discovered a huge upwelling of hot rock under Marie Byrd Land, which lies between the Ross Ice Shelf and the Ross Sea, is creating vast lakes and rivers under the ice sheet. The presence of a huge mantle plume could explain why the region is so unstable today, and why it collapsed so quickly at the end of the last Ice Age, 11,000 years ago.

In addition to the 47 volcanoes already known about currently “sleeping” under the Arctic ice, scientists have found more. They discovered 91 additional volcanoes in Antartica, now the largest volcanic region on earth. This is a big blow to those who think melting polar ice is the sole fault of humans. The project, by Edinburgh University researchers, has revealed almost 100 volcanoes. The highest discovered volcano is as tall as the Eiger, a popular peak to traverse in the Swiss Alps, which stands at almost 4,000 meters (over 13,000 ft) in Switzerland. Before this discovery, the densest concentration of volcanoes...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Global warming. There's news on that today. From the UK Express: "Meltdown Myth: Antarctic Ice Growing, Expanding, Is Just the First Evidence Global Warming Is Not Real." Now, this story, we've talked about the Antarctic ice. We talked about it yesterday, the day before. The point about it is: Where are all the computer models the global warming people believe to predict it? The only reason we're even talking about global warming -- well, the real only reason -- is it's part of the left's agenda of expanding government worldwide, raising taxes worldwide, and a key ingredient...

A group of climate change scientists were rescued by helicopter Jan. 2, after being stranded in the ice since Christmas morning. But the majority of the broadcast networks’ reports about the ice-locked climate researchers never mentioned climate change. The Russian ship, Akademic Shokalskiy, was stranded in the ice while on a climate change research expedition, yet nearly 98 percent of network news reports about the stranded researchers failed to mention their mission at all. Forty out of 41 stories (97.5 percent) on the network morning and evening news shows since Dec. 25 failed to mention climate change had anything to...

After 10 days stranded far from home, all 52 passengers from a ship stuck in Antarctic ice have now been transferred by helicopter to an Australian icebreaker. "It's 100% we're off! A huge thanks to all," tweeted Chris Turney, an Australian professor among the group of scientists, journalists and tourists marooned on the ship. A helicopter from a nearby Chinese icebreaker ferried passengers Thursday to the Australian icebreaker, the Aurora Australis. The rescue is the latest chapter in a saga that began Christmas Eve after the Russian-flagged MV Akademik Shokalskiy got stuck in unusually thick ice. Officials abandoned a succession...

As my colleague David M. Herszenhorn reports, scientists are poised to take some highly anticipated samples from a deep subglacial lake in Antarctica, saying on Wednesday that they had succeeded in boring through more than two miles of ice. The state-financed broadcaster Russia Today posted video of the researchers at the frigid Antarctic outpost, including clips of them snowmobiling around the endless expanse of ice and snow and watching supply planes land. What evolutionary secrets Lake Vostok — named after the Russian research station above it — may hold after being sealed under ice for millions of years has tantalized...

Scotch whisky meant to warm Antarctic explorers retrieved after century locked in ice Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand - This Scotch has been on the rocks for a century. Five crates of Scotch whisky and two of brandy have been recovered by a team restoring an Antarctic hut used more than 100 years ago by famed polar explorer Ernest Shackleton. Ice cracked some of the bottles that had been left there in 1909, but the restorers said Friday they are confident the five crates contain intact bottles "given liquid can be heard when the crates are moved." New Zealand Antarctic...

How Scottish Scientists Re-Created a Hundred-Year-Old Whisky Preserved in Antarctica since 1907, the Scotch that Ernest Shackleton drank is now available in stores In 1907, Ernest Shackleton and crew set out on the ship Nimrod to visit Antarctica and, they hoped, the South Pole. The good news was, the entire party survived the trip, thanks in part to the Rare Old Highland Whisky they brought to the frozen continent. But the expedition was forced to evacuate in 1909, some 100 miles short of the Pole they sought. And, as winter ice encroached and the men hurried home, they left behind...

Why Antarctica Isn't Melting Much -- Yet Scientists Explain Complex Climate Patterns By FRED PEARCE Jan. 9, 2010 Antarctica is warming, but not melting anything like as much as expected. In fact, during the continent's summer this time last year, there was less melting than at any time in the 30 years that we have had reliable satellite measurements of the region. A look at the effects of global warming in Antarctica. The apparent contradiction is explained by the seasonal pattern of warming, say two glaciologists writing in Eos, the weekly newspaper of the American Geophysical Union. The continent's winters...

On November 1, 1911, British explorer Robert Falcon Scott departed from Cape Evans on his Terra Nova Expedition, the legendary race against Norwegian Roald Amundsen to become the first man to reach the South Pole. Scott left behind a prefabricated, seaweed-insulated wooden cabin and its outbuildings, as well as scientific equipment used to measure the continent's fearsome climate.

4/18/2008 - CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AFPN) -- Five-year-old Benjamin Laury talked about elephants, storm troopers and how cool pilots are -- all in a single, convoluted sentence -- as he looked around a C-17 Globemaster III April 17 here. As part of a home-schooling group invited to check out the enormous airplane that just flew into their corner of the world, Benjamin and his friends are trying to make sense of what they're being told. Reserve and active-duty Airmen from the 446th and 62nd Airlift Wings hosted the children as they created analogies about their jobs and got a fair...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - Scientists who conducted the most comprehensive survey to date of New Zealand's Antarctic waters were surprised by the size of some specimens found, including jellyfish with 12-foot tentacles and 2-foot-wide starfish.A 2,000-mile journey through the Ross Sea that ended Thursday has also potentially turned up several new species, including as many as eight new mollusks.

Scientists have discovered a huge active volcano under Antarctica. - The BAS team says data from the volcano will help it predict future rises in sea-levels caused by melting ice.