Antarctic News

A collection of news items taken from the world's newspapers that relate to the Antarctic. This site is updated as news items appear in the popular press. All links will take you to sites outside of the PRISM site. Use your back button to return.

• Oct. 1, 2002- Unusually Small Antarctic Ozone Hole This Year - Spaceflight Now
  The ozone hole over Antarctica not only appears much smaller this September than in the past two years, but also has split into two distinct holes. Whether this presages the recovery of the ozone layer remains to be seen. More infomation and images on this topic from NASA.
  
  
• Sept. 20, 2002- Antarctic Telescope Sees Big Bang Echo - CNN
  A telescope called the Degree Angular Scale Interferometer at the National Science Foundation's Amundsen-Scott station in the Antarctic has recorded a flicker of light that provides information about the dynamics of the early universe.
  
  
• Sept. 17, 2002- Antarctic Ozone Gap Shrinking- CBS
  Levels of CFCs (Carbon Fluorocarbons) in the atmosphere appear to be decreasing giving rise to hopes that the Antarctic Ozone hole could repair itself in approximately 50 years.
  
  
• Sept. 9, 2002- Antarctic Animals Feel The Heat - BBC
  Studies conducted by the British Antarctic Survey showed the many cold-blooded invertebrates which populate the edge of the icy continent will struggle to survive if sea warming occurs as predicted by global climate change models.
  
  
• Sept. 2, 2002- NASA Study Finds Rapid Changes In Polar Ice Sheets - NASA
  Ice sheets in the Arctic and Antarctic are changing much faster than was predicted according to recent airborne measurements and the latest space-based measurements. Thinning of ice sheets is particularly noticeable near the coast of Greenland. In Antarctica, several major glaciers seem to be accelerating.
  
  

• August 23, 2002- Antarctic Ozone Hole to Expand- CBC News
  The annual hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic is forming now and scientists predict it will get larger in the next few weeks according to the World Meteorological Association.

• August 21, 2002- Internet to Reach South Pole- BBC News
  South Pole Station will be connected to the Internet as soon as nearly 2,000 kilometers of fiber optic cable is laid. It is predicted this will take until 2009.
  
  
• August 2, 2002- Scientists Measure Antarctic Ice Shelf Tides from Space - Science Daily
  For the first time, scientists will be able to measure the effects of Antarctic tides which will, in turn, allow more accurate measurement of height and thickness of ice shelves. Overall, it will improve the accuracy of climate change predictions.
  
  
• July 24, 2002- Anthrax Spores Found at Scott's Antarctic Camp - BBC News
  Scientists have discovered deadly anthrax spores in the stables of the Cape Evans hut used by the English expedition led by Robert Scott in the early 1900s. The hut has been closed as a precaution, but it appears that the spores pose no threat to any visitor.
  
  
• July 13, 2002- Antarctic Ice Cores - Science Show
  Description of ice core samples drilled over the past 30 years and a summary of what has been learned from them.
  
  
• July 12, 2002- Antarctic Refuse Collection - Ananova
  Volunteers removed approximately 1000 tons of scrap and refuse from Antarctica last month. You can read the diaries of one volunteer online.
  
  
• July 9, 2002- Antarctic Ice Melting Faster Than Expected - Daily Online Dispatch
  Floating ice sheets surrounding Antarctica are melting much faster than expected according to an American research team.
  
  
• July 8, 2002- NOAA Seizes Illegally Harvested Chilean Sea Bass - AccessNOAA
  NOAA special agents intercepted a shipment of 3000 tons of sea bass illegally taken from Antarctic waters. It was bound for American restaurants.
  
  
• July 2, 2002- Scientists Rescued From Antarctic Ship - BBC News
  All passengers aboard a Russian ship trapped in the ice for the past two weeks have been airlifted to safety and an icebreaker is expected to reach the ship in the next week.
  
  
• June 14, 2002 - Scientists Trapped in Antarctic - BBC News
  Seventy-nine Russian scientists are aboard ship and are healthy, but cannot proceed because of sea ice blocking all routes. Rescue ships, including an icebreaker are being sent.
  
  
• June 13, 2002 - Antarctic Fringes Vulnerable to Thaw - MSNBC
  The edges of the Antarctic ice sheet appear to be the areas of the continent most vulnerable to global warming.
  
  
• June 4, 2002 - Bush Disses Global Warming Report - CBS
  EPA report shows that US greenhouse gases will increase significantly due to human activity over next two decades. President Bush was not persuaded.
  
  
• June 3, 2002 - Antarctic Storms Likely Cause of Penguin Deaths - Australian Antarctic Division
  The unusual number of Adelie penguin deaths near Mawson station last year appears to have been due to severe storms, not disease.
  
  
• June 1, 2002 - EU Ratifies Global Warming Treaty - Washington Post
  The members of the European Union ratified the Kyoto Protocol designed to reduce levels of greenhouse gases. Still requires ratification by other industrial nations.
  
  
• May 31, 2002 - Ozone Hole On The Mend? -Nature
  New models by Japanese researchers suggest that Antarctic ozone levels may rebound from previous low levels due to improved emission controls implemented in 1987.
  
  
• May 28, 2002 - Antarctic Ice Sheet Key To Sudden Sea Level Rise At End of Ice Age -University of Toronto
  Physicists have concluded that a massive and unusually abrupt rise in sea level about 14,000 years ago was cased by a partial collapse of ice sheets in Antarctica.
  

• May 21, 2002 - Huge Antarctic Icebergs Break Away near NSF Research Hub - NSF
  Natural calving of two giant icebergs on Ross Ice Shelf, C-18 and C-19, return the shelf to the condition seen in 1911.
  
  
• May 21, 2002 - Iceberg 35 miles long, 7 miles wide breaks away from Antarctica - CNN
  Photos and description of giant berg, D-17, that has broken from the Lazarev Ice Shelf.
  
  
• May 20, 2002 - World's Largest Whale Under Threat - Greenpeace
  In spite of nearly four decades of protection the Antarctic blue whale population show little sign of recovery, according to the latest report from the
  International Whaling Commission (IWC).
  
  
• May 15, 2002 - Big Berg Threat To McMurdo Multiplies - Antarctican
  The number of bergs now near Ross Island may threaten access to McMurdo Station and the wildlife in the area.
  
  
• May 13, 2002 - Current Satellite Photos of the C-19 Iceberg - AMRC
  Follow the movements of the newly calved C-19 iceberg off the Ross Ice Shelf.
  
  
• May 10, 2002 - Monster Iceberg Breaks Off Antarctic Ice Shelf - CNN
  An iceberg 10 times the size of Manhattan has broken from the Ross Ice Shelf. Satellite photo available here.
  
  
• May 10, 2002 - Another Gigantic Ice Shelf Falls - New Zealand Herald
  A large section of the Ross Ice Shelf has collapsed into the sea. This might point to changes in global climate.
  
  
• April 29, 2002 -Counting the Cost of B-15- Antarctican
  The super-berg, B-15, in the southern Ross Sea seems to have taken its toll on phyloplankton, an essential link in the Antarctic food chain for penguins.
  
  
• April 25, 2002 - NZ Government Wants "Cut" of Profits from Bioprospecting - New Zealand Herald
  Government officials from New Zealand have lobbied to take royalties from industrial and pharmacological
  activities conducted in the portions of Antarctica controlled by New Zealand.
  
  
• April 22, 2002 - Human Waste Threatens Global Biodiversity - British Antarctic Survey
  Litter, especially plastics, carry micro-organisms that could wreak havoc with native species, especially if the oceans warm further.
  
  
• April 9, 2002 - Shackelton Prose Thawed Out - BBC News
  The South Polar Times, a newsletter written and edited by the members of the Shackelton team, is being republished and shows a lighter side of the explorers.
  

• April 5, 2002 - Antarctic Peninsula Climate Variability - Hamilton College Workshop
  Global warming may be proceeding in a way that threatens biodiversity all over the world and which may especially threaten coral reefs. See the data and discussion in the archived live broadcasts and panel discussions.
  

• April 4, 2002 - Old Diary Tells Tales of Scott Hardships - New Zealand Herald
  A recently discovered diary is allowing a peek into the daily chores and hardships experience by Captain Scott's expedition to discover the South Pole.
  
  
• April 1, 2002 - Federal Money Aids Development of Ice Telescope - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
  The University of Wisconsin-Madison has gotten a large grant to expand their AMANDA IceCube project. This project is designed to make a kilometer of ice into a neutrino detector located at the South Pole.
  
  
• Mar. 22, 2002 - Ice Continent On the Move - NASA
  Satellite radar shows that ice sheets on the continent are more numerous and active than previously thought.
  
  
• Mar. 22, 2002 - Molecular Biology Goes To Extremes - BBC News
  Scientists are testing microorganisms from the McMurdo Dry Valleys to try to understand organisms that can live under very inhospitable conditions.
  
  
• Mar. 21, 2002 - Researchers Describe Overall Water Balance in Subglacial Lake Vostok - NSF
  A lake with water over 400,00 years old, buried under meters of ice on the Ataractic plateau may be home to unique lifeforms.
  
  
• Mar. 21, 2002 - Ancient Penguins Yield Evolution Clue - BBC News
  DNA samples from the bones of long-dead Adelie penguins give researchers a better idea of the speed of molecular evolution.
  
  
• Mar. 19, 2002 - Antarctic Ice Shelf Breaks Apart - BBC News
  500 billion tons of ice disintegrates in less than a month! Breakup of the Larson B. ice shelf on the peninsula.
  
  
• Mar. 19, 2002 - Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapses - National Snow & Ice Data Center
  Images and movies of the breakup of the Larson B. ice shelf on the Antarctic peninsula.
  
  
• Mar. 19, 2002 - Satellite Spies on Doomed Antarctic Ice Shelf - British Antarctic Survey
  Satellite images and additional photographs of the area of the Larson B. ice shelf.
  
  
• March 14, 2002 - Antarctic Ice Core over 500,00 Years Old Extracted - Environment News Service
  An ice core over a half-million years old has been extracted at Dome Concordia to assist with analysis of climate change through several climate cycles.
  
  
• March 12, 2002 - Penguins Hope For Better Future - BBC
  Very few Adelie penguin chicks at Cape Royds survive severe weather conditions this year.
  
  
• March 7, 2002 - Satellites, Software Plot Safer Antarctic Routes - CNN
  Ohio State researchers use technology to improve route planning for scientists in Antarctica.
  
  
• Mar. 5, 2002 - Secret Stash of Key Antarctic Food Under Sea Ice - British Antarctic Survey
  Discovery of more about the life cycle of krill - a key factor in the Antarctic food chain
  
  
• Feb. 14, 2002 - Enormous Iceberg May Be In Its Death Throes - NSF Polar Programs
  The enormous B-15A iceberg once part of the Ross Ice Shelf may break up after collision with another iceberg.
  
  
• Feb. 14, 2002 - Warming Sea Near Antarctic Heralds Climate Change - CNN
  The Southern Ocean is warming twice as fast as the global ocean and this may have a strong impact on ocean and air temperatures throughout the world.
  
  
• Feb. 3, 2002 - Preserving Antarctica's Historic Huts - The Antarctic Sun
  Huts built by the first explorers of Antarctica such as Scott and Shackleton are starting to deteriorate and historians are trying to plan how to save them.
  
  
• Jan. 28, 2002 - Antarctic Lakes Display Dramatic Response to Climate Change - Sci. American
  Antarctic lakes may be effective for predicting the effects of climate change on the earth.
  
  
• Jan. 17, 2002 - Ice Buildup Hampers Penguin Breeding - National Geographic
  The migration of Emperor and Adelie penguins to their breeding grounds seems to be seriously affected by extensive sea ice and the presence of two huge icebergs in areas of Cape Crozier and Cape Royds
  
  
• Jan. 3, 2002 - Scientists Dive Under Antarctic Ice In Search of Glue - ABC News
  Scientists looking for an underwater microorganism called "forams" to try to understand how they secrete a superglue that works in wet salty environments, similar to the human body.