Tag: Antarctic

Studying the otherworldly sounds in Antarctic waters

By Juan RESTREPO, Juan BARRETO In freezing Antarctic waters, amid bobbing chunks of floating ice, the hums, pitches and echoes of life in the deep are helping scientists understand the behavior and movements of marine mammals. “There are species which make impressive sounds, literally like Star Wars, they sound like spaceships,” said Colombian scientist Andrea Bonilla, who is carrying out research with underwater microphones off Antarctica’s coast. The biologist from Cornell University in New York […]

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Antarctica hits record temperatures, say experts

PARIS, France (AFP) – Eastern Antarctica has recorded exceptionally high temperatures this week, more than 30 degrees Celsius above normal, say experts. The Concordia research base at Dome C of the Antarctic, which is at an altitude of 3,000 metres (9,800 feet), on Friday registered a record -11.5 degrees Celsius (11.3 Fahrenheit), Etienne Kapikian, a meteorologist from France-Meteo tweeted. Normally, temperatures fall with the end of the southern summer, but the Dumont d’Urville station on […]

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UN confirms 18.3C record heat in Antarctica

by Robin MILLARD GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The United Nations on Thursday recognized a new record high temperature for the Antarctic continent, confirming a reading of 18.3 degrees Celsius (64.9 degrees Fahrenheit) made last year. The record heat was reached at Argentina’s Esperanza research station on the Antarctic Peninsula on February 6, 2020, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization said. “Verification of this maximum temperature record is important because it helps us to build up a […]

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Wayward whale takes city break in Montreal

MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) — A young humpback whale that swam up one of Canada’s major rivers and has been exploring the waters off Montreal for a few days was likely led astray while on a hunting trip, authorities have said. Since Saturday, the giant creature has been swimming in the St Lawrence river against the backdrop of the Montreal skyline — hundreds of kilometres (miles) from the waters it usually calls home. The humpback is […]

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Ukraine scientists navigate lockdown to reach Antarctica

by Olga SHYLENKO Agence France-Presse KIEV, Ukraine (AFP) — Yuriy Otruba was preparing for his sixth scientific expedition to Antarctica when the coronavirus pandemic hit, shutting borders, grounding flights and locking down countries he needed to travel through. After repeated trips since 2009, the 34-year-old Ukrainian scientist feared this year’s journey would be impossible due to strict lockdown measures imposed throughout the world to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. The journey from Kiev to the Akademik Vernadsky […]

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Antarctic sea ice in dizzying decline since 2014: study

by Ivan Couronne WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — After mysteriously expanding for decades, Antarctica’s sea ice cover melted by an area four times greater than France in just a few years and now stands at a record low, according to a study published Monday. Scientists already knew Antarctica was thawing at an increasing rate, like the Arctic, because of accelerating discharge from glaciers, the rivers of ice that push up slowly against the shore. But […]

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Japan whalers return from Antarctic hunt after killing 333 whales

  TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japanese whaling vessels returned to port on Saturday after catching more than 300 of the mammals in the Antarctic Ocean without facing any protests by anti-whaling groups, officials said. A fleet of five whalers set sail for the Southern Ocean in November, as Tokyo pursues its “research whaling” in defiance of global criticism. Three of the vessels, including the fleet’s main ship, the Nisshin Maru, arrived in the morning at Shimonoseki […]

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1.5 million penguins discovered on remote Antarctic islands

by Mariëtte Le Roux Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — A thriving “hotspot” of 1.5 million Adelie penguins, a species fast declining in parts of the world, has been discovered on remote islands off the Antarctic Peninsula, surprised scientists said Friday. The first bird census of the Danger Islands unearthed over 750,000 Adelie breeding pairs, more than the rest of the area combined, the team reported in the journal Scientific Reports. The group of […]

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1.5 million penguins discovered on remote Antarctic islands

by Mariëtte Le Roux Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — A thriving hotspot of some 1.5 million Adelie penguins has been discovered on the remote Danger Islands in the east Antarctic, surprised scientists announced Friday. Just 160 kilometers (100 miles) away in the West Antarctic, the same species is in decline due to sea ice melt blamed on global warming, they said. The first complete census revealed that the Danger Islands host more than 750,000 […]

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Scientists set off to explore new Antarctic ecosystem

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — A team of international scientists led by the British Antarctic Survey set off on Wednesday to explore a mysterious marine ecosystem that has lain hidden under an ice shelf for up to 120,000 years. The BAS said that an iceberg known as A68 broke off from the Larsen Ice Shelf in July 2017, revealing a section of seabed measuring 5,818 square kilometers (2,245 square miles) — nearly four times the […]

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Signs of ‘healing’ ozone layer over Antarctic: study

  MIAMI, United States (AFP) – The hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic has begun to shrink, signaling good news for the environment decades after an international accord to phase out certain pollutants, researchers said Thursday. The study found that the ozone hole had shrunk by 1.5 million square miles (four million square kilometers) — an area about the size of India — since 2000. “It’s a big surprise,” said lead author Susan […]

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