Antarctica

Travel Sep 15, 2020

Japanese researcher fulfills dream as a 'winterover' at South Pole

by Ichiro Banno

Yuya Makino is spending the six-month winter season hunting for neutrinos in Antarctica.

World / Science & Health Jun 25, 2020

Plastic may have already 'deeply' entered Antarctic terrestrial food chain

Scientists have found bits of polystyrene in the guts of tiny, soil-dwelling organisms in the Antarctic, raising concern that microplastics pollution has already "deeply" entered the world's most remote land-based food systems. While the infiltration of microplastics throughout the oceans is well-known, researchers said their ...

World / Science & Health May 20, 2020

Climate change turning Antarctica's snow green

Antarctica conjures images of an unbroken white wilderness but blooms of algae are giving parts of the frozen continent an increasingly green tinge. Warming temperatures due to climate change are helping the formation and spread of "green snow" and it is becoming so prolific in ...

World / Science & Health Apr 15, 2020

'Isolated within isolation': Keeping the coronavirus out of Antarctica

In the frozen and desolate expanse of Antarctica, Alejandro Valenzuela Pena is used to a feeling of isolation. Now, however, that has taken on a new meaning as the only continent still free from the coronavirus looks to keep the pandemic out. The global spread ...

World / Science & Health Mar 12, 2020

Sixfold jump in polar ice loss lifts global oceans

Greenland and Antarctica are shedding six times more ice than during the 1990s, driving a higher sea level that could bring annual flooding by 2100 in regions that now are home to 400 million people, scientists have warned. The kilometers-thick ice sheets atop land masses ...

World / Science & Health Feb 14, 2020

Antarctica registers record temperature of 20.75 Celsius

Scientists in Antarctica have recorded a new record temperature of 20.75 degrees Celsius (69.35 Fahrenheit), breaking the barrier of 20 degrees for the first time on the continent, a researcher said Thursday. Brazilian researcher Carlos Schaefer told AFP the reading at a monitoring station on ...

World / Science & Health Jan 15, 2020

Brazil to open new Antarctic research base replacing one that burned down

Brazil will open a new research base in Antarctica this week, officials said Tuesday, eight years after a fire destroyed its original scientific outpost. The government invested nearly $100 million in the reconstruction of the Comandante Ferraz Antarctic Station, a 48,500-sq.-foot complex on King George ...

National / Science & Health Jan 6, 2020

Japanese icebreaker Shirase reaches Showa Station in Antarctica for climate study

The Shirase, a Japanese icebreaker, has reached Showa Station, the nation's Antarctic research facility. Around 2:50 p.m. Sunday, the ship carrying members of Japan's 61st research expedition team and goods to be used in their activities arrived at a point where the team could pipe ...

World Dec 13, 2019

Chile finds human remains and debris from missing plane, saying finding survivors 'practically impossible'

Chile confirmed Thursday that human remains and debris found by search ships are from a military plane reported missing with 38 people aboard, and the chances of finding survivors is "practically impossible." "The condition of the plane wreckage that was found makes it practically impossible ...

World / Science & Health Nov 28, 2019

Invasive species set to exploit climate change in Antarctica

In the tiny part of Antarctica where the snow melts in springtime, mosses, lichens and grasses grow alongside flies, mites and colonies of micro-organisms that have fed and reproduced for millions of years. The rich biodiversity is preserved by an ancient equilibrium of extreme cold ...