Antarctica

GeoTalk: Meet Marie Cavitte, policy officer for the Cryosphere Division, member of the EGU Climate Hazards Task Force, former Blue Book trainee

Damla Posta February 17, 2026

Welcome, Marie! Could you please introduce yourself to our readers? Hi, my name is Marie Cavitte. I’m a glaciologist and climatologist with a passion for the polar regions. I spent 10 years studying Antarctica. I started off during my Masters, then PhD, looking at the oldest ice on Earth, hunting for THE region of the ice sheet that might contain million-year-old ice. An ice core has been drilled ...[Read More]

McMurdo Sound’s 70th anniversary: An expedition journal by Julia Martin

Julia Martin February 16, 2026

It was October 28, 2022 around 3 p.m. Fascinated by the majestic white snow-covered mountain caps, deep-blue sea ice cracks and light-blue pressure ridges, I gently press my nose against the cold double-glassed window of the Royal New Zealand 757. The tires smoothly touch the ground, and the warm voice of the flight attendant fills the dry air in the aircraft: “Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Ant ...[Read More]

Predators or gardeners: how penguins fertilise Antarctica’s biodiversity

Anna Katsigera April 19, 2024

On the desolate Antarctic peninsula, a colony of penguins creates a hub of biodiversity. One may ask, how exactly do those aquatic birds help maintain and enrich the variety of different kinds of organisms from plants and animals, to a wide range of insects and micro-organisms that live on our planet? The answer is quite intriguing. Scientists from the University of Science and Technology of China ...[Read More]

Past ice and future predictions – scanning and drilling the changing Antarctic ice

Maria Scheel April 17, 2024

In front of the blue EGU press conference background, Olaf Eisen (left), Robert Larter (middle) and Emma Pearce (right) are engaged in discussion.

Did you know that some of the scientists of each General Assembly get invited to a press conference to face a group of curious journalists? I did not – but as press assistant for the #EGU24, I had the unique chance to attend the press conference “Unveiling Antarctica’s secrets: new research brings us one step closer to predicting the future of the icy continent”. Prominent scientists (Fig.1) ...[Read More]

GeoTalk: Meet Ann-Sofie Zinck, researcher of Antarctic ice shelves and Cryosphere ECS Representative!

Simon Clark August 11, 2023

Hi Ann-Sofie. Thank you for joining this GeoTalk! To break the ice, could you tell us a bit about yourself and what got you interested in the Antarctic? Hi Simon, thanks for inviting me! That’s easy! As a child I always used to be ice cold… No, just kidding! I guess I have always been fascinated about nature, geoscience, weather, climate, and ice (creams). I preferred atlases, weather, and g ...[Read More]

Imaggeo On Monday: A science outpost in midnight sun

Jan-Marcus Nasse December 7, 2020

Photo of the air chemistry observatory of the German Neumayer III Antarctic station during Polar Day 2017. Located in a clean air sector south of the station, the observatory’s main purpose is to record continuous, year-round data records of relevant particulate and gaseous trace components of the troposphere. As one of only few stations located in the very clean troposphere of Antarctica, i ...[Read More]

Why is research in Antarctica so important?

Hazel Gibson December 1, 2020

On the 1st December 1959 the Antarctic Treaty was signed by 12 nations, setting aside nearly 10% of the Earth “forever to be used exclusively for peaceful purposes… in the interests of all mankind.” In the years that followed more and more countries signed the agreement, until today when the agreement has been signed by 54 countries around the globe. In 2010, the Foundation for ...[Read More]

Imaggeo On Monday: Desert Varnish, Antarctica Style

Martha Cary Eppes November 30, 2020

This photograph highlights the oxidized surface of diorite boulders, which fall from the ice at the base of the Mullins Glacier in Beacon Valley, Antarctica when the ice moves directly from a solid state into a gas state, without becoming a liquid in between (a process called sublimation). The particular features (morphology) of the varnish and the desert pavement of this unique environment are re ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: A window to ice and fire

Wuquan Cui April 20, 2020

Brown Bluff is a basalt tuya located on the Tabarin Peninsula of northern Antarctica. This site supports a breeding colony of about 20,000 pairs of adelie penguins and about 550 pairs of gentoo penguins. Geologically speaking, Brown Bluff is simply fascinating. The towering bluffs were the result of an explosive volcanic eruption under ice. Large boulders have toppled from Brown Bluff to the beach ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Monday: Time-proven shelter in drifting snow

Jan-Marcus Nasse March 9, 2020

During my PhD I was working at the German Neumayer III station in Antarctica for my research on polar atmospheric chemistry. Since my instrument was set up on an observatory south of the main station, every day I would walk past a Scott pyramid tent to go and do my research. One day, in the midst of an Antarctic storm, I caught sight of the tent deep in the drifting snow, and took this picture. Th ...[Read More]