London: Antarctic summer ice melt is now occurring 10 times faster than it did 600 years ago, with ice loss speeding up the most since mid 20th Century, new research has warned. The 1000-year Antarctic Peninsula climate reconstruction published in the journal Nature Geoscience, shows that summer ice melting has intensified almost 10-fold, and mostly since the mid 20th Century.
Summer ice melt affects the stability of Antarctic ice shelves and glaciers. In 2008, a UK-French science team drilled a 364-metre long ice core from James Ross Island, near the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, to measure past temperatures in the area. They discovered that this ice core could also give a unique and unexpected insight into ice melt in the region.
Visible layers in the ice core indicated periods when summer snow on the ice cap thawed and then refroze. By measuring the thickness of these melt layers the scientists were able to examine how the history of melting compared with changes in temperature at the ice core site over the last 1,000 years.
"We found that the coolest conditions on the Antarctic Peninsula and the lowest amount of summer melt occurred around 600 years ago," said lead author Dr Nerilie Abram of The Australian National University and British Antarctic Survey (BAS). "At that time temperatures were around 1.6 degrees Celsius lower than those recorded in the late 20th Century and the amount of annual snowfall that melted and refroze was about 0.5 per cent.
02:22 PM, Apr 15, 2013
California: Google's online mapping service is incorporating additional images from Antarctica. The new images include flags marking the South Pole and the interiors of the supply cabins built for Ernest Shackleton's and Robert Scott's expeditions early in the 20th century. They are part of Google's Street View program, which offers ground-level, 360-degree panoramic images. The new images add to those Google has made available from the continent since 2010. Google...
10:41 AM, Jul 19, 2012
Sydney: Scientists have identified 15 distinct regions of Antarctica and its near-shore islands, based on the geography, geology, climate, flora and fauna of the ice-free areas, including the biologically distinct Antarctic Conservation Biogeographic Regions. Australian Antarctic Division terrestrial biologist Aleks Terauds, who led the study, said this is the first time a continent-wide assessment of the biogeography of Antarctica has been made using all of the available biodiversity data. "The...
12:27 PM, Jun 15, 2012
Caracas: A 33-year-old British adventurer set out on skis on Friday to attempt a historic solo crossing of Antarctica. Felicity Aston aims to become the first woman to make it across the frozen continent alone. She expects the journey of more than 1,000 miles (1,700 kilometers) will take about 70 days. She announced on Twitter that she was setting out from her starting point at the Ross Ice Shelf. "Having...
02:04 AM, Nov 26, 2011
Wellington: Thousands of passengers in Australia and New Zealand were affected when airlines suspended flights on Sunday as an ash cloud from an erupting volcano in southern Chile spread, threatening to damage engines. Australia's national carrier, Qantas Airways, said all the airline's flights in and out of the southeastern city of Melbourne would be grounded. Qantas also canceled 22 flights to and from New Zealand and the Australian island-state of...
07:54 PM, Jun 12, 2011
The iceberg is a rare sight in waters so far north. ...
02:50 PM, Nov 13, 2009
A Citizen Journalist Kartikeya Singh sends a video diary from Antartica. ...
04:07 PM, Jun 23, 2009
Jamshedpur: Middle-order batsman Saurabh Tiwary and seamer Rahul Shukla have been omitted from the Jharkhand Ranji team ahead of its last league match against Goa, beginning at Keenan stadium here from on Monday. While Tiwary was replaced by batsman Ashish Yadav, left-arm seamer Jaskaran Singh would take the place of Shukla for the last league encounter, Rajesh Verma, secretary of the Jharkhand State Cricket Association, said. Verma said Singh had...
10:38 AM, Mar 27, 2008
Colombo: Muttiah Muralitharan is doubtful for Sri Lanka's World Cup semifinal against New Zealand on Tuesday. Captain Kumar Sangakkara says Muralitharan is carrying multiple injuries and "we have to monitor how he goes." Muralitharan strained a hamstring in the last group match against New Zealand. Sangakkara says the world's leading wicket-taker aggravated a quadriceps muscle in the quarterfinal win over England. Muralitharan did some light training Monday and also bowled...
08:48 AM, Jan 09, 2008
A Texas-sized piece of the Antarctic ice sheet is thinning, possibly due to global warming, say scientists. ...
07:47 PM, Mar 29, 2007
Rising sea levels and melting polar ice-sheets are at upper limits of projections in Antarctica, say researchers. ...
02:30 PM, Mar 23, 2007
Scientists found 19 new marine species, while they were exploring the untouched Antarctic waters. ...
11:52 PM, Feb 26, 2007
Tides affect the speed at which Antarctica ice sheet bigger than the Netherlands is sliding toward the sea, says study. ...
01:14 PM, Dec 21, 2006
