A seal wearing a helmet with an antenna might look unusual, but eight Weddell seals, each with a 580g monitoring device on their heads, have been helping Japanese researchers survey the waters under the thick ice sheet in Antarctica. Tapped for a research project between March and November 2017 - winter in Antarctica - these seals were equipped with the head-mounted conductivity, temperature and depth sensor, which allows scientists to collect observation data, such as water temperatures and salt levels, in areas with extremely harsh environmental conditions. This video grab shows a Weddell seal fitted with high-tech head-mounted measuring devices to survey waters under the thick ice sheet, near Japan's Showa Station in Antarctica, April 2017. National Institute of Polar Research/Ha...
Read MoreTag: Antarctica
A humpback whale, likely lured by a trawling net capturing masses of Antarctic krill, became entangled last month and died in the Southern Ocean. Three dead juveniles were caught in the same company's krill nets last year. Scientists say the humpbacks may have been malnourished while forced to compete for food with a burgeoning industry harvesting the tiny crustaceans - the linchpin in the Antarctic food web - for use in pharmaceuticals and fish feed. The fishing company, Norway's Aker BioMarine, said these were its first cases of whale bycatch in 15 years of harvesting krill in Antarctica, and that it has since reinforced its ships' devices for keeping marine mammals out of its nets. Pål Skogrand, director of Antarctic affairs and sustainability at Aker BioMarine, said the c...
Read MoreAWI experts confirm that the spread was delayed than previously believed Roughly 35 million years ago, Earth cooled rapidly. At roughly the same time, the Drake Passage formed between South America and the Antarctic, paving the way for the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Thanks to these two factors, Antarctica was soon completely covered in ice. As a study from the Alfred Wegener Institute now shows, this massive glaciation was delayed in at least one region. This new piece of the puzzle concerning the early history of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could help to predict its unstable future. The study was just released in the Nature journal Communications Earth & Environment. Overlooking the Polarstern parked next to the floe during melt season. Photo: Alfred-Wegener-Institut / ...
Read MoreA new Study provides critical insights into ice mass loss in Antarctica After the natural warming that followed the last Ice Age, there were repeated periods when masses of icebergs broke off from Antarctica into the Southern Ocean. A new data-model study led by the University of Bonn (Germany) now shows that it took only a decade to initiate this tipping point in the climate system, and that ice mass loss then continued for many centuries. Accompanying modeling studies suggest that today's accelerating Antarctic ice mass loss also represents such a tipping point, which could lead to irreversible and long-lasting ice retreat and global sea level rise. The study has now been published in the journal Nature Communications. To understand what the consequences of current and futu...
Read MoreA giant slab of ice bigger than the Spanish island of Majorca has sheared off from the frozen edge of Antarctica into the Weddell Sea, becoming the largest iceberg afloat in the world, the European Space Agency said on Wednesday. The newly calved berg, designated A-76 by scientists, was spotted in recent satellite images captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, the space agency said in a statement posted on its website with a photo of the enormous, oblong ice sheet. A view of the newly calved iceberg designated A-76 by scientists, the largest currently afloat in the world according to the European Space Agency (ESA), and captured by the ESA's Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission is seen in this handout photo obtained by Reuters on May 20, 2021. ESA/Copernicus Sentinel-1 Mission, CC B...
Read MoreAll-female scientific coalition calls for protection of Antarctic Peninsula
Climate change and human activity are harming Antarctica and threatening wildlife from humpback whales to microscopic algae, more than 280 scientists and conservation experts say in urging protections for the icy region. The coalition - all women - called for creating a new marine protection area around Antarctica, as governments on Monday began a two-week meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. FILE PHOTO: An iceberg floats near Lemaire Channel, Antarctica, February 5, 2020. Picture taken February 5, 2020. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino Two Antarctica areas are already protected: The South Orkney Islands and the Ross Sea. The new protection area, proposed in 2018 by commission members Chile and Argentina, would cover the western Antarctic P...
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