This is the 33rd issuance of the annual assessment now known as State of the Climate, published in the Bulletin since 1996. As a supplement to the Bulletin, its foremost function is to document the status and trajectory of many components of the climate system. However, as a series, the …
A dramatic shift has taken place in the glaciers of the southern Antarctic peninsula, writes Bert Wouters. Six years ago these previously stable bodies suddenly stated shedding 60 cubic kilometres of ice per year into the ocean. A stark warning of further surprises to come? The fact that so many …
With climate change heating things up, and the Earth's poles rapidly melting, it should come as no surprise that a major Antarctic ice shelf may completely disappear by 2020, according to a new NASA study. Massive amounts of glacier melt and freshwater are pouring into the Gulf of Alaska, which …
The last intact section of one of Antarctica’s mammoth ice shelves is weakening fast and will likely disintegrate in the next few years, contributing further to rising sea levels, according to a new NASA study. The research focused on a remnant of the Larsen B Ice Shelf, which has existed …
The catastrophic collapses of Larsen A and B ice shelves on the eastern Antarctic Peninsula have caused their tributary glaciers to accelerate, contributing to sea-level rise and freshening the Antarctic Bottom Water formed nearby. The surface of Larsen C Ice Shelf (LCIS), the largest ice shelf on the peninsula, is …
PARIS: The largest ice shelf in the Antarctic peninsula is being thinned by warmer seas and air and could catastrophically break up, scientists said on Wednesday. The loss of the Larsen C ice shelf could occur within a century but an earlier collapse cannot be ruled out, with major consequences …
SYDNEY: Growing sea ice surrounding Antarctica could prompt scientists to consider relocating research stations on the continent, according to the operations manager of the Australian Antarctic Division. Rob Wooding said that resupplying Australia's Mawson Station -- the longest continuously operated station in Antarctica -- relied on access through to a …
The largest ice shelf on the Antarctic peninsula is thinning because of warmer ocean and air temperatures that are driving it towards a collapse that could contribute significantly to sea level rise, a new study has found. The study by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) analysed the Larsen C ice …
Sea level rise sped up over the last two decades rather than slowing down as previously thought, according to new research. Records from tide gauges and satellites have shown sea level rise slowing slightly over the past 20 years. But as the ice sheets of West Antarctica and Greenland shed …
Sea ice around Antarctica is currently at record levels for May, part of a trend of increasing ice around the frozen continent making it harder to resupply and refuel research stations. More than 50 scientists are gathering in Hobart in Tasmania this week for a series of workshops on techniques …
The new marine invertebrate species is part of a group of marine worms (polychaetous annelids) which commonly occur in marine seabeds rich in organic matter - from both natural and anthropogenic origin - at different latitudes. Specifically, P. diapason is the second species of the genus Parougia discovered in the …
Studies find West Antarctica’s ice sheet is melting faster. But a new look at the ancient past suggests it once pushed sea levels up by three metres Let’s start with an understatement. There’s quite a bit of ice in Antarctica and if enough of it melted it would make a …
Ice cores pulled from miles below Antarctica’s surface are revealing new evidence of ancient links between the climates of Earth’s Northern and Southern hemispheres. A cylinder of ice drilled from a depth of more than 11,100 feet has allowed scientists to document 68,000 years of climate history, including a consistent, …
The last glacial period exhibited abrupt Dansgaard–Oeschger climatic oscillations, evidence of which is preserved in a variety of Northern Hemisphere palaeoclimate archives. Ice cores show that Antarctica cooled during the warm phases of the Greenland Dansgaard–Oeschger cycle and vice versa, suggesting an interhemispheric redistribution of heat through a mechanism called …
A new study using evidence from a highly detailed ice core from West Antarctica shows a consistent link between abrupt temperature changes on Greenland and Antarctica during the last ice age, giving scientists a clearer picture of the link between climate in the northern and southern hemispheres. Greenland climate during …
Anaesthetic gases may help doctors to cause temporary loss of sensation in patients and carry out surgery smoothly, but by accumulating in the Earth's atmosphere, they also contribute to climate change, says a new study. Over the past decade, concentrations of the anaesthetics desflurane, isoflurane and sevoflurane have been rising …
Icebergs breaking away from the Antarctic ice sheets every year contain enough water to fill the Three Gorges reservoir nineteen times, according to a study by Chinese scientists. Researchers with the State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science at Beijing Normal University analysed more than 10,000 satellite images from between …
The ice around the edge of Antarctica is melting faster than previously thought, potentially unlocking metres of sea-level rise in the long-term, researchers have warned. A team of US scientists looked at 18 years’ worth of satellite data and found the floating ice shelves that skirt the continent are losing …
A warming ocean is pouring through newly discovered rivers under the largest glacier in East Antarctica, confirming this sleeping giant of climate change is awakening. As the seawater seeps further inland, the Totten Glacier – twice the size of Victoria – faces the prospect of irreversible melt which will hasten …
The behavior of marine-terminating ice sheets, such as the West Antarctic ice sheet, is of interest due to the possibility of rapid grounding-line retreat and consequent catastrophic loss of ice. Critical to modeling this behavior is a choice of basal rheology, where the most popular approach is to relate the …
From the ground on Cape Legoupil in the extreme northern part of Antarctica, spectacularly white and blinding ice seems to extend forever. What can’t be seen is the battle raging far below to reshape Earth. Water is eating away at the ice, melting it where it hits the oceans. As …
