The redirection of warm water under the Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf during the second half of this century could cause the ice-shelf base to melt at a rate 20 times higher than at present.
Of the West Antarctic ice shelves, those in the Amundsen Sea sector have given the most cause for concern. Ocean modelling of the Weddell Sea region, together with a detailed survey of the ice bed morphology, indicates that this region, too, may change soon.
Using satellite laser altimetry, basal melting of ice shelves is determined to be the main driver of Antarctic ice-sheet loss, with changing climate the likely cause.
Counting emperor penguins in their icy Antarctic habitat was not easy until researchers used new technology to map the birds from space, and they received a pleasant penguin surprise for their effo
A report by Sam Bateman and Anthony Bergin of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Canberra in the Australian daily The Australian, shows panic reaction of Australia as the largest territorial claimant in Antarctica. A quote directly from the report is as follows: ‘China and India’s increasing interest in the Antarctic could presage the use of their stations for military purposes, destabilising the continent as a zone of peace…. Like other rising nations, China and India want a higher profile in Antarctic affairs.
A reconstruction of global surface temperature is used to show that deglacial temperature is correlated with and generally lags carbon dioxide concentration, a result that contributes to the explanation of the temperature change that occurred at the end of the most recent ice age.
A reconstruction of temperature from proxy records shows that the rise in global mean temperature closely resembled, but slightly lagged, the rise in carbon dioxide concentration during the last period of deglaciation.
Planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions - similar to those caused by burning fossil fuels and other human activities now - helped heat the planet and end the last ice age some 11,700 years ago, sci
