Mar
06
2018
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Sea Drifters
The menagerie of drifting ocean creatures that lives off the coast of Palmer Station was under the microscope more than ever this past austral summer. A team of scientists spent five months at the station studying the tiny creatures that drift along the ocean currents. It's the first time the research team studying these zooplankton spent an entire field season at Palmer Station analyzing changes over time in the abundance of different species.
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Feb
14
2018
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Circumnavigating the Pole Hole
In January, researchers went for a more than 750-kilometer drive around the South Pole. The team followed the arc of the 88th parallel for a quarter of its distance ringing the South Pole. Their cargo was a sensitive GPS unit to record the exact elevation of the ice sheet they drove over. The effort is in support of NASA's ICESat-2 satellite, a mission devoted to measuring ice levels around the world, particularly in the polar regions.
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Jan
08
2018
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Quantifying Snowfall
Snow in some form or another blankets almost all Antarctica, but measuring exactly how much snow falls from the sky is tricky. A team of researchers recently set up four newly-developed precipitation observatories near McMurdo Station to better measure how much snow falls in the region.
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Dec
20
2017
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The South Pole Telescope's New Eyes
The telescope at the bottom of the planet spent winter calibrating and collecting data after its vision enhancement last summer. Researchers installed a new camera system in the South Pole Telescope, a major upgrade that allows researchers to collect more data than ever before.
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Oct
31
2017
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Life In A Cryoconite Hole
Diverse ecosystems that teem with life thrive just below the surface of many Antarctic glaciers. Small, frozen holes full of liquid water and microorganisms entombed by ice dot the surfaces of glaciers. Researchers in Antarctica are studying them to glean new insights into how these habitats form, and learn what they might be able to reveal about ecosystems around the world.
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Oct
17
2017
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Talking Science with the General Public
Scientists spent a long weekend in August learning how not to talk like a scientist. Educators from the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science and the University of Colorado, Boulder trained a class of 32 early career polar scientists on techniques to share their science with the general public.
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Sep
19
2017
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The Edge Of Life
Researchers working in Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys found evidence, in ancient dried microbial mats, of microorganisms that may have been alive for thousands of years. The discovery could have implications for biology in other parts of the world and even on other planets, such as Mars.
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Jun
30
2017
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The Prehistoric Forests of the Frozen Continent
Paleontologists uncovered the fossil remnants of the oldest forest yet discovered in Antarctica. At about 270 million years old, the fossils come from an extinct species of tree known as Glossopteris. The fossils promise to offer paleontologists insights into the prehistoric climate and ecology of Antarctica, and the dramatic ecological changes that were about to sweep across the continent.
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Jun
14
2017
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Dating The East Antarctic Ice Sheet
The history of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet is written in stones along the Transantarctic Mountains. Over the past two years, researchers ventured to remote areas along the mountain range to decipher how high ancient glaciers reached, by studying the rocks they left behind. By measuring the amount of cosmic radiation the rocks have been exposed to, the research team can map out the reach of ancient glaciers at different points in the past.
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May
24
2017
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Methane Munching Microbes
VIDEO: Five years ago, a plume of natural methane started seeping out of the seafloor near McMurdo Station, providing researchers an unprecedented chance to study the formation and development of colonies of microorganisms that rely on methane for nourishment.
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May
17
2017
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Tag! You're it!
A number of Adelie penguins around the Ross Sea are sporting sophisticated new leg bands this year. Ornithologist David Ainley and his team attached new electronic tags to about 150 penguins to record where each penguin goes and how deeply it dives under water. The tagging project ties in with a broader effort that he's been spearheading for 20 years, monitoring Adelie penguin populations and demographics around Ross Island.
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Apr
26
2017
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Caves Of Gas
Planet Earth is gassy. All over the world, plumes of gasses that formed deep under the planet's surface, pour out of active volcanoes and mix with the atmosphere. Tobias Fischer, a volcanologist at the University of New Mexico, spent two seasons exploring the frozen face of Antarctica's Mount Erebus, the world's southernmost active volcano, to better understand these fumes escaping from the depths of the Earth.
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Apr
20
2017
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Ancient Ice Levels
Today, a massive sheet of ice covers nearly all of West Antarctica, but it hasn't always been that way. Over the past few hundred thousand years, researchers think that the ice sheets have waxed and waned, varying in size as the region's climate changed. To gather evidence of how dynamic the ice cover has been in the past, John Stone of the University of Washington and his team traveled to a remote region of the continent this past season.
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Climate Change In The McMurdo Dry Valleys
Why Antarctic Fish Don't Freeze Their Tails Off
