Tag: Ice shelf

The Polar Retrospective - 10 tractors for Antarctica, iceberg calving triggered by tides, and wildfires and polar bears

Polar Journal AG Team

The Polar Retrospective looks at recent stories from around the world’s polar regions. This week we take a look at a $17 million contract between the Norwegian Polar Institute and Prinoth, at new insights into the role of ocean tides in triggering iceberg calving in Antarctica, and consequences of wildfires on polar bears.

New Windracers drones for Antarctica: NORCE buys two ULTRA MK1s

Julia Hager

As part of a new partnership, Windracers is providing the Norwegian research institute NORCE with two new ULTRA MK1 drones to support research at the Norwegian Troll Station in Antarctica.

IceNode: NASA robots to document melting under Antarctic ice shelves

Julia Hager

A fleet of autonomous robots will soon be recording important parameters under Antarctic ice shelves in order to better understand the melting processes at the ice-water interface.

Thwaites Glacier won’t collapse like dominoes as feared, study finds, but that doesn’t mean the ‘Doomsday Glacier’ is stable

Polar Journal AG Team

A new study of Thwaites Glacier’s susceptibility to what’s known as marine ice cliff instability offers some hope, according to a new study. But it doesn’t mean Thwaites is stable.

Twice as much meltwater: slush on Antarctic ice shelves was underestimated

Julia Hager

On the ice shelf, meltwater in the form of slush occurs more frequently than liquid meltwater accumulations in the Antarctic peak summer, but has not yet been sufficiently taken into account in climate models.

Antarctic ice shelves can break under the weight of meltwater lakes

Julia Hager

Recent time-lapse images and GPS data from the George VI Ice Shelf show that the numerous meltwater lakes on the Larsen B Ice Shelf may have been one of the causes of its sudden disintegration in 2002.

Another iceberg calves in the Weddell Sea

Heiner Kubny

A 380 km² iceberg broke off from the Brunt Ice Shelf in the early hours of May 20, 2024. The event had been expected for several weeks.

UPDATE: Cliff jumping - An extraordinary dare for Emperor penguin chicks

Julia Hager

Documentary filmmaker Bertie Gregory was the first to capture the bold leaps of Emperor penguin chicks from high ice cliffs in unique drone footage for National Geographic.

The polar retrospective - Looking beneath Antarctica's icy coastline

Dr. Michael Wenger

This time, the focus of the review is not on Antarctic sea ice, but on previously neglected Antarctic underwater currents and the topography beneath the largest ice shelf.

A23a, a giant iceberg adrift

Mirjana Binggeli