Antarctica

AGAP: Exploring the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains in Antarctica during the International Polar Year

PI(s):

Robin E. Bell

Scientists from several nations are working together to launch a flagship program to explore a major mountain range buried by a large continental ice sheet and bounded by numerous subglacial lakes.

Website:

AGAP: Antarctica's Gamburtsev Province

GAMBIT: Gamburtsev Aerogeophysical Mapping of Bedrock and Ice Targets

PI(s):

Robin E. Bell

Using geophysical instruments, GAMBIT will peal back more than 600 meters of ice to explore the last hidden mountain range on Earth.

Website:

GAMBIT - Antarctic Research: Peering Through the Ice

Antarctic and Southern Ocean Data Portal

PI(s):

Suzanne M. Carbotte

The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Data Portal provides access to geoscience data, primarily marine, from the Antarctic region.

Website:

Antarctic and Southern Ocean Data Portal

Location

United States

81° 20' 5.4384" S, 97° 12' 25.3116" W

See map: Google Maps

Southern Ocean Circulation and overturning

PI(s):

Arnold L. Gordon

The ring of deep water around Antarctica not only links the major ocean [Atlantic/Pacific/Indian] , but also produces dense waters along the continental margins of the frozen continent, which sinks

Website:

AnSlope: Cross-Slope Exchanges at the Antarctic Slope Front

	Name	Title	Fields of interest
	Bruce A. Huber	Senior Staff Associate

Exploring an Unknown Arctic Seabottom (No Ice Included)

September 14, 2011

Readers can follow a New York Times blog from the arctic as the U.S. flagship vessel for charting geology under the seabed sails the Chukchi Sea, north of Alaska and Siberia. By sending sound pulses to the seabed and reading the echoes, scientists conducting the Chukchi Edges project aboard the Marcus G. Langseth hope to understand the structure and history of the continental shelves running underwater off Asia and North America, and the Chukchi Borderland, an adjoing region of dramatic deep-sea plateaus and ridges some 800 miles from the North Pole.
A Sea Change, Deep Under Antarctic Waters

September 13, 2011

The frigid seabottom off Antarctica holds a surprising riot of life: colorful carpets of sponges, starfish, sea cucumbers and many other soft, bottom-dwelling animals,shown on images from robotic submarines. Now, it appears that many such communities could fast disappear, due to warming climate.
Ocean Currents Speed Melting Of Antarctic Ice

June 24, 2011

Stronger ocean currents beneath West Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier Ice Shelf are eroding the ice from below, speeding the melting of the glacier as a whole, according to a new study in Nature Geoscience. A growing cavity beneath the ice shelf has allowed more warm water to melt the ice, the researchers say—a process that feeds back into the ongoing rise in global sea levels. The glacier is currently sliding into the sea at a clip of four kilometers (2.5 miles) a year, while its ice shelf is melting at about 80 cubic kilometers a year - 50 percent faster than it was in the early 1990s - the paper estimates.
Ecosystems Push South in Antarctica

March 13, 2009

Warming Climate Drives Plankton and Penguins Poleward

Adélie penguins are flocking closer to the South Pole. A new study in the leading journal Science explains why: they’re following the food supply, which is moving southward with changing climate.
Explorers to Probe Hidden Antarctic Mountains

October 22, 2008

Under Miles of Ice, Range May Hold Secrets of Geology and Climate

Scientists from six nations will combine efforts over the next three months to try and penetrate one of earth’s last unexplored places: Antarctica’s vast Gamburtsev Mountains, never seen by humans...
Cosmic Dust in Ice Cores Sheds Light on Earth's Past Climate

August 07, 2006

Each year nearly 40,000 tons of cosmic dust fall to Earth from outer space. Now, the first successful chronological study of extraterrestrial dust in Antarctic ice has shown that this amount has remained largely constant over the past 30,000 years, a finding that could help refine efforts to understand the timing and effects of changes in the Earth's past climate.
Glacial Earthquakes Point to Rising Temperatures in Greenland

March 23, 2006

Seismologists at Columbia University and Harvard University have found a new indicator that the Earth is warming: "glacial earthquakes" caused when the rivers of ice lurch unexpectedly and produce temblors as strong as magnitude 5.1 on the moment-magnitude scale, which is similar to the Richter scale. Glacial earthquakes in Greenland, the researchers found, are most common in July and August, and have more than doubled in number since 2002.


	Basal Plumbing for the Changing (ice) Masses	Earth Science Colloquium
	A Delicate Balance: Antarctica and its Surrounding Oceans	Part of the 2011 Public Lecture Series