The Wilkins Ice Shelf before, left, and after the ice bridge collapsed in earlier April. The ice bridge had become superfluous to the integrity of the remaining ice shelf by the time it shattered, said NSIDC scientists Ted Scambos.
|
Wilkins Ice Shelf
The ice bridge is gone. Now ice bergs are calving off the new front. But the Wilkins Ice Shelf is still hanging on, and Ted Scambos at the National Snow and Ice Data Center said he believes small bits of the West Antarctic ice shelf could survive for several more years.
Read the Story
|
Ancient Microbes
A cold, dark and oxygen-poor reservoir of water chemically similar to seawater seems an unlikely place to find a functioning ecosystem, particularly one trapped under an inland glacier in Antarctica. But samples collected from such an environment turned up an unusual microbial community.
IPY Traverse
A joint team of Norwegian and American scientists spent more than three months in East Antarctica drilling ice cores, exploring subglacial lakes and taking measurements of the thick ice sheet to learn more about the past one thousand years of climate on the continent.
Antarctic Treaty Meeting
Scientists, diplomats and others involved in supporting research in Antarctica and the Arctic converged in Baltimore, Md., this month for the 32nd Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting to discuss topics ranging from climate change to tourism.
Pine Island Cruise
Few ships ever make it to the front of the Pine Island Glacier because of the near-constant blockade of sea ice in the adjoining bay. But a team of U.S. and British scientists not only got up close to the fast-moving glacier, but even went below it using a robotic sub, one of the first such explorations.
