New map reveals hidden landscape under Antarctica’s ice sheet

January 18, 2026 3:00 PM

New map reveals hidden landscape under Antarctica’s ice sheet

Scientists have devised the most detailed map to date of the terrain hidden below the vast ice sheet blanketing Antarctica, uncovering an exuberant landscape of mountains, canyons, valleys and plains while discerning for the first time tens of thousands of hills and other smaller features. The researchers used the latest high-resolution satellite observations and a method called ice-flow perturbation analysis, which estimates subglacial topography and conditions based on surface features, to ma...

Rapid loss of Antarctic ice may be climate tipping point, scientists say

August 21, 2025 2:37 PM

Rapid loss of Antarctic ice may be climate tipping point, scientists say

Rapid loss of Antarctic sea ice could be a tipping point for the global climate, causing sea level rises, changes to ocean currents and loss of marine life that are impossible to reverse, a scientific study published on Thursday said. The paper in the journal Nature aimed to describe in previously unseen detail the interlocking effects of global warming on the Antarctic, the frozen continent at the planet's South Pole. "Evidence is emerging for rapid, interacting and sometimes self-perpetuatin...

China’s first atmospheric monitoring station in Antarctica begins operations

December 3, 2024 1:12 PM

China’s first atmospheric monitoring station in Antarctica begins operations

China said its first atmospheric monitoring station in Antarctica started operations this week, a move aimed at helping observe changes on the southern continent and supporting the global response to climate change. Like the United States, China has been expanding its presence in Antarctica and in the Arctic to explore polar resources. The Zhongshan National Atmospheric Background Station will conduct "continuous and long-term operational observations of concentration changes in Antarctic atmo...

Rocket scientists build robot probes to gauge melting beneath Antarctica ice shelf

August 30, 2024 9:15 PM

Rocket scientists build robot probes to gauge melting beneath Antarctica ice shelf

Engineers who specialize in building NASA spacecraft to explore distant worlds are designing a fleet of underwater robot probes to measure how rapidly climate change is melting vast ice sheets around Antarctica and what that means for rising sea levels. A prototype of the submersible vehicles, under development by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles, was tested from a U.S. Navy laboratory camp in the Arctic, where it was deployed beneath the frozen Beaufort Sea north of Alaska in ...

India to facilitate first-ever focused working group discussions on Antarctic tourism

September 16, 2024 6:38 PM

India to facilitate first-ever focused working group discussions on Antarctic tourism

In a move to regulate tourism in Antarctica, over 350 participants from nearly 40 nations are meeting in Kochi, Kerala, with India playing a pivotal role in facilitating the discussions, the Ministry of Earth Sciences said on Tuesday. The 46th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) and the 26th Meeting of the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP), which started on May 20 and will run through May 30, are being organized by the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), Go...