Nasa detects ice retreat probably linked to ocean changes in region once thought stable

The eastern section of Antarctica is buried beneath a thick ice sheet. Some scientists simply assumed that under that cold mass there was nothing more than a “frozen tectonic block,” a somewhat homogeneous mass that distinguished it from the mixed up geologies of other continents. But with the help of data from a discontinued European satellite, scientists have now found that East Antarctica is in fact a graveyard of continental remnants.

There's something out there that physicists have never seen before, and it's coming up from the bottom of the Earth. Scientists think it's a brand-new particle.

The UK government has thrown its weight behind the creation of the world’s biggest environmental sanctuary, covering a huge swathe of the Antarctic ocean. The massive 1.8m sq km reserve – five times the size of Germany – would ban all fishing in a vast area of the Weddell Sea and parts of the Antarctic peninsula, safeguarding species including penguins, killer whales, leopard seals and blue whales.

Winds blowing across snow dunes on Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf cause the massive ice slab's surface to vibrate, producing a near-constant set of seismic 'tones' scientists could potentially use to monitor changes in the ice shelf from afar, according to new research.

Scientists say this sound could be used to monitor how Antarctica's largest ice shelf is responding to climate change.

Scientists have heard strange "singing" noises coming out of the ice shelf. The low-frequency noises – which sound a little like moaning when sped up – could help researchers track the ice shelves as they collapse. The singing tones come out of the surface of the massive Ross Ice Shelf when the winds blowing across the snow dunes cause it to vibrate. That means they produce the "tones" almost constantly, and now scientists have found they can listen to them.

Nasa has released a striking photo of a rectangular iceberg floating in the Weddell Sea off Antarctica.

Look at that iceberg. It's beautiful. Perfectly rectangular. An object of near geometric perfection jutting into a polar sea of the usual squiggly, chaotic randomness of the natural world. It calls to mind the monolith from "2001: A Space Odyssey." But, unlike the monolith from that very weird movie, this iceberg was not deposited on this world by space aliens. Instead, as Kelly Brunt, an ice scientist with NASA and at the University of Maryland, explained, it was likely formed by a process that's fairly common along the edges of icebergs.

Environmental groups say Russia, China and Norway played part in rejecting plan.

As the Antarctic Peninsula heats up, the rules of life there are being ripped apart. Alarmed scientists aren’t sure what all the change means for the future. By Craig Welch, photographs by Paul Nicklen, Cristina Mittermeier, Keith Ladzinski.

Colin O’Brady and Louis Rudd are both trying to become the first to finish the 921-mile odyssey on ice completely unsupported. It is a journey that killed a man who tried two years ago.

Rob Robbins and Steve Rupp have been diving under the Antarctic sea ice for a combined 60 years. Hang around their dive headquarters at McMurdo Station and you’ll see rows of oxygen tanks, wetsuits, and breathing apparatus.

Scientists say they have discovered compelling evidence that diamonds exist in the icy mountains of Antarctica.

Parts of ancient Antarctica were as warm as today’s California coast, and polar regions of the southern Pacific Ocean registered 21st-century Florida heat, according to scientists using a new way to measure past temperatures.

Scientists are monitoring an iceberg roughly six times the size of Manhattan - one of the largest now in existence - that broke off from an Antarctic glacier and is heading into the open ocean.

Canadian author Matt Chatelain's video trailer for The Vostok Juncture promises adventure and intrigue. We help authors from around the world put their ideas into words.

Scientists have revealed that Earth's mantle under Antarctica is at a lower viscosity and moving at such a rapid rate it is changing the shape of the land at a rate that can be recorded by GPS. They have explained for the first time why the upward motion of Earth's crust in the Northern Antarctic Peninsula is currently taking place so quickly.

Teams of scientists say the long-feared collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has begun, kicking off what's likely to be a centuries-long process that could raise sea levels by as much as 15 feet.

Seven countries have laid claim to parts of Antarctica and many more have a presence there - why do they all want a piece of this frozen wasteland? I pick a path between rock pools and settle my bottom on a boulder. A spectacular, silent view unfolds across a mountain-fringed bay. Then there is a flash in the shallows by my feet - an arrow of white and black.

Behind the Argentina's Esperanza Base, on the Antarctic peninsula, it's possible to stand on a cliff and look down on a colony of 250 000 Adelie penguins. This area, the most frequented by penguins going to and from the sea, changes its appearance daily, depending on snowfall, blooms of algae in the ice, or the colors that the penguins drag along with their feet.

An incredible ice-berg wave, frozen in time, hangs delicately over the serene waters of Paradise Harbour along the Antarctic Peninsula. The textures in this berg were breathtaking. By Tim McCullough.

Iceberg collapsed a couple of seconds, no injuries

Scientists have pulled up thousands of different types of micro-organisms from Lake Whillans, a large body of water buried 800m under the ice sheet.

Researchers have for the first time extensively mapped Greenland's and Antarctica's ice sheets with the help of the ESA satellite CryoSat-2 and have thus been able to prove that the ice crusts of both regions momentarily decline at an unprecedented rate. In total the ice sheets are losing around 500 cubic kilometers of ice per year.

More than 9,000 species, from single-cell organisms to penguins and whales, are chronicled in the first Antarctic atlas since 1969.

A new study just published shows that—using more accurate measurements than ever before—Greenland and Antarctica are together losing ice at incredible rates: Together, over 500 (±107) cubic kilometers of ice are melting from them every year.

Scientists say the extent of Antarctic sea ice cover is at its highest level since records began. Satellite imagery reveals an area of about 20 million square kilometres covered by sea ice around the Antarctic continent.

The “smoking bar" on Antarctica's McMurdo Station was raucous and depraved. For Hunter R. Slaton, it was perfect.

Robert Scott was a British explorer who died with his several of his companions on his second expedition to the Antarctic due to starvation, exhaustion and the extremely cold weather. More than 100 years after his death, an artifact from his ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition of 1910-1913 has emerged.

Researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the California Institute of Technology sent the robots to the Southern Ocean off Antarctica, one of the most remote and inaccessible oceans of the world. They revealed that swirling ocean eddies transport layers of warm water towards the coast of Antarctica.

During a routine flight over the Antarctic ice shelf on 20 December last year, geophysicist Christian Müller spotted something strange: a huge, 2-kilometre-wide circle on the ice. Müller, a contractor with research consultants Fielax from Bremerhaven, Germany, was in Antarctica as part of a polar survey conducted by the German Alfred Wegener Institute. Six days after spotting the weird ice-ring, he and his colleagues returned and...

While on an expedition in Antarctica, photographer Alex Cornell had the rare opportunity to photograph a recently flipped iceberg. Defining to the old adage "just the tip of the iceberg," it turns out the underside can be illuminated with unbelievable bright blues and striation that reveal visually stunning secrets of these sleeping giants. Witnessing a flip is uncommon, and moreover the surreal texture and colors distort the scale making it a truly incredible encounter.

The last flight out of the South Pole until November departed on Friday. How do the people left behind cope with months of endless darkness and sub-zero temperatures?

Earth's past, present and future come together here on the northern peninsula of Antarctica, the wildest, most desolate and mysterious of its continents. Clues to answering humanity's most basic questions are locked in this continental freezer the size of the United States and half of Canada: Where did we come from? Are we alone in the universe? What's the fate of our warming planet?