Antarctica

Imaggeo on Mondays: Penguins – a biogeochemical link between sea and land

Daniel Wasner May 6, 2019

Linking Sea to Land. Credit: Daniel Wasner (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

A couple of Chinstrap penguins (Pygoscelis antarctica) at their nesting site on Deception Island, maritime Antarctica. Sea birds contribute importantly to biogeochemical cycles in coastal ecosystems and on islands. Feeding on the marine food chain and nesting on land, they carry large amounts of marine nutrients into terrestrial ecosystems. This might be of particular importance for the nitrogen ( ...[Read More]

April GeoRoundUp: the best of the Earth sciences from the 2019 General Assembly

Olivia Trani May 3, 2019

Scientists present research findings at a press conference at the EGU General Assembly 2019 (Credit: EGU / Anastasia Kokori)

The EGU General Assembly 2019 took place in Vienna last month, drawing more than 16,000 participants from 113 countries. This month’s GeoRoundUp will focus on some of the unique and interesting stories that came out of research presented at the Assembly! Major Stories Glacial disappearing act in the European Alps New research from a team of scientists estimated the future of all glaciers within th ...[Read More]

Geosciences Column: Scientists pinpoint where seawater could be leaking into Antarctic ice shelves

Olivia Trani February 21, 2019

Calving front of an ice shelf in West Antarctica, taken during the 2012 Antarctic campaign of NASA's Operation IceBridge. (Credit: NASA/GSFC/Jefferson Beck via flickr)

Over the last few decades, Antarctic ice shelves have been disintegrating at a rapid rate, likely due to warming atmospheric and ocean temperatures, according to scientists. New research reveals that one type of threat to ice shelf stability might be more widespread that previously thought. A study recently published in EGU’s open access journal The Cryosphere identified several regions in Antarct ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: An iceberg-sized issue

Natalie Robinson February 4, 2019

Dwarfed by a grounded iceberg. Credit: Natalie Robinson (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

This was taken during a study, undertaken by me and my colleagues, on the sea ice of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. We designed the project to document how supercooled water carrying suspended ice crystals flows along its pathway towards the open ocean. Ultimately, this work aims to assess the Ross Ice Shelf’s contribution of local melt to the long-term trend of increased sea ice cover around Antarcti ...[Read More]