antarctica

Antarctica is pretty much covered with glaciers. Glaciers are dynamic entities that, unless they are in full melt, tend to grow near their thickest parts (that's why those are the thickest parts) and mush outwards towards the edges, where the liminal areas either melt (usually seasonally) in situ or drop off into the sea. Antarctic's glaciers are surrounded by a number of floating ice shelves. The ice shelves are really the distal reaches of the moving glaciers floating over the ocean. This is one of the places, probably the place at present, where melting accelerated by human caused…

Dear Readers, Find below an interesting press release I may as well share verbatim: The rapidly melting ice sheets on the coast of West Antarctica are a potential major contributor to rising ocean levels worldwide. Although warm water near the coast is thought to be the main factor causing the ice to melt, the process by which this water ends up near the cold continent is not well understood. Using robotic ocean gliders, Caltech researchers have now found that swirling ocean eddies, similar to atmospheric storms, play an important role in transporting these warm waters to the Antarctic coast—…

Of the four new articles online on our website, three happen, purely by accident, to be on physics research. The three are very different, and yet each is an illustration of the ways that basic physics research changes our world – in small and large, practical and enlightening ways. And each is situated at a different intersection between the technological and the theoretical – a technological breakthrough that resulted from a successful attempt to provide proof for a theoretical construct, new inventions based on elementary physical principles of light, and a theory substantiated through a…

The fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was released last week, saying that global warming is occurring without a doubt, and human activity is extremely likely to be the cause.  Greg Laden shares a number of graphics from the report, summarizing "It is getting hotter. It is getting wetter, or dryer, depending on where you are. And the big ice hat our planet wears is falling off."  Peter Gleick collates a number of excerpts related to water on Significant Figures, which say that there are likely more regions getting more rain than less; the frequency of…

A paper came out in today’s Nature about glacial melting and its contribution to sea level rise. This paper does not present new research, but rather summarizes and evaluates the last several years of research on modeling and measuring contiental glaciers and their dynamics. From the Abstract: Since the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report, new observations of ice-sheet mass balance and improved computer simulations of ice-sheet response to continuing climate change have been published. Whereas Greenland is losing ice mass at an increasing pace, current…

HA! A blog post by an Antarctic tourist about a paper studying the blogs of Antarctic tourists! Being there: examining the behaviour of Antarctic tourists through their blogs *Very* fun idea! If you want to know how tourists are behaving/interacting with environment and wildlife of Antarctica when they visit, you could hitch a ride with a bunch of tour groups and spy on everyone-- or you could sit at home in your warm office and study what these tourists have reported/posted on their blogs! I was momentarily terrified I was quoted at some point for doing something wrong, as I fit the paper…

Sometime, about one year from now, the front pages of whatever decent newspapers are left will carry a headline like the one above, announcing that for the first time in human existence (or in nearly a million years, or 3 million years, or 15 million years), the global atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide – the principal gas causing climate change – will have passed 400 parts per million. That’s a significant and shocking figure. Unfortunately, it is only a temporary marker on the way to even higher and higher levels. Here (Figure 1 below) are the most recent (March 2013) data from the…

If you havent heard, Richard Dawkins is cruising around Antarctica right now-- Theyve upgraded internet abilities since I went, so he has been able to upload some Tweets and some photographs to flicker: I want to go back so goddamn badly, seeing these pics makes me sad.  Its like seeing an ex youre still in love with happy with someone else.  So Im wallowing in my longing/sadness by going back and reading all my old love letters to Antarctica: The Antarctica Files: Back! The Antarctica Files: Whales make me sick. The Antarctica Files: Penguin Madness! The Antarctica Files: Penguin Sex. The…

A new look at twenty years worth of research shows that polar ice is in fact melting, and raising sea levels, faster than anticipated. Greg Laden writes "Greenland is losing ice about 500% faster now than it was in the early 1990s, while Antarctica is losing ice at about the same rate." Altogether, ice melt since 1992 "has contributed to about 0.44 inches of sea level rise." On Stoat, William M. Connolley says "Still – that adds up to 0.6 mm/yr. So it will have to grow if its to become interesting by 2100." With ice-bound methane poised to mingle with carbon dioxide and accelerate global…

*sigh* Two years ago, this time, I was packing my bags for Antarctica. *sigh* As much as I would like to go back, I could never afford it... so I need to figure out how to get on one of these research teams working in Antarctica. See, abiogenesis, life on other planets-- that is not just a thought game physicists play.  There are scientists-- microbiologists, virologists, biochemists, geologists-- who try to find and study life in the most extreme locations on Earth, to try to figure out what 'life' could look like say, on Mars, or Europa. Its not a game. Its the research they perform day-in-…

Parochial stuff: I reported before that Axing the British Antarctic Survey would mean the end of Scott’s legacy?, but it looks like MPs say No: Chair of the Science and Technology Committee, Andrew Miller MP, said: My Committee has considered the process undertaken to merge British Antarctic Survey and the National Oceanography Centre. What we have concluded is that NERC have not made a proper case for it nor demonstrated political nous on the strong non-science related issues surrounding BAS. Which is either Hooray for BAS! or Boo for political interference in science! depending on your…

The Antarctica Files: Penguin Sex. ... I didnt notice it at the time, but I did after my bud uploaded this to YouTube: Please note that while several of the penguins in the vicinity just sat on their eggs, minding their own business-- there is a creeper penguin, like, right there, just staring... staring at the other two penguins having penguin sex... breathing... I laughed really hard at that. But then I realized that we were even creepier creepers, recording and watching two members of a different species having sex. :-/ BUT ITS FOR SCIENCE! Apparently, humans have a long history of being…

Posted on: January 11, 2011 12:00 PM, by ERV: Before were allowed to do ANYTHING on Antarctica, we had a lecture on what we could and could not do while we were visiting. Even though everyone was ecologically conscientious, there were tons of things we had to do that none of us would have thought of on our own. We had to vacuum our jackets/pants/hats/bags/etc, so we wouldnt accidentally introduce an invasive plant or other organism. We had to decon our boots before and after every outing, so we wouldnt contaminate an island then spread that contamination everywhere. Either everyone is not…

Writing grants + papers + stress + migraines + beautiful weather apparently = me not blogging. :-/ Luckily, others are and Dr. Dolittle at LifeLines put up a post on how whales use bubbles to hunt: Blowing Bubbles While that sounds like part of a Monty Python bit ("First you get the comfy chair... and then... BUBBLES! NO ONE EXPECTS THE BUBBLES!"), that is actually how whales hunt for fish, and I actually got to see this irl in Antarctica! NOTE: These are NOT my pictures! These are pics from folks on the trip that had awesome cameras, and they donated them to the DVD of photos everyone got…

Hey one of my boat buddies uploaded a slide-show Quark made for us to YouTube! Everyone on the ship uploaded their favorite pics to the ship computer, then they picked some of the best for the slide show. Please note that one of THE BEST pics is of my hot white thighs. *AHEM* (you can turn the sound off-- the music is just cheesy stock 'music')

Penguins share parenting responsibilities 50-50-- one parent watches the nest, one parent gets to go feed, and then they switch. Over and over and over. Well some of these damn rookeries were WAY far away from the water! HUGE journeys for little foot-tall penguins, especially when they can only waddle on land, especially when the snow is up over their heads! How do they make that journey just a little bit easier? Same way we make long journeys on land a little easier-- HIGHWAYS! HA!

Just watch the video. My friend recording this for me was too far away to catch what I was saying. Apparently, I was cussing like a sailor and cracking everyone up (you can hear them roaring with laughter in the background). I think I said something along the lines of "WHY DID YOU ALL TELL ME 'ITS NOT THAT BAD!' THIS IS TERRIBLE. THIS IS AWFUL. WHY WOULD YOU ALL LIE TO ME LIKE THIS??? I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS! I HATE YOU ALL! HEY! PEOPLE IN LINE! THEYRE LYING! THIS IS TERRIBLE! I WANT TO DIE!! DONT DO IT!!" Why was I BAAAAAWING like that? Because the life-jacket we wore was…

Okay, once again, I dont like birds. I was no way at risk of developing Penguin Madness. Seal Madness, though... that was a different matter all together. Unfortunately, I have this habit... when Arnie is taking an afternoon nap, fat black puppy butt lying in the sun, I physically cannot resist running up to him screaming 'PUPPYPUPPYPUPPY!!!!' and playing his ribcage like a bongo drum. And then when he sits up going "WTF??" I give him a noogie. And then I am presented with a beach, with a dozen seals with their cute puppy-dog-eyes and fat grey butts in the sun... *twitch* *twitch* I made it…

Just to reenforce this aspect of my personality: I dont like birds. Yes, they are pretty, as long as they are 'over there' and arent all up in my face about being birds. I mean, Im not all up in their face screaming "IM A HUMAN", rite? Anyway, I think birds instinctively know that I dont like them. Arnie and I go on the same walkie route 1-3 times a day. Every Spring, there is one god damned bird... one god damned bird that gets all bitchy about his nest or chicks or something, and freaks the hell out whenever anyone (but especially me and Arnie) get too close to his nest. And by 'too…

Yes, you read that right. Penguin sex. You know youve always wondered. Now you can see it for yourself. Yes, for the rest of the trip, we made 'penguin sex' jokes at any/all given opportunities. This often involved flapping our arms for a visual demonstration. The 'penguin punch'. I didnt notice it at the time, but I did after my bud uploaded this to YouTube: Please note that while several of the penguins in the vicinity just sat on their eggs, minding their own business-- there is a creeper penguin, like, right there, just staring... staring at the other two penguins having penguin sex...…