Revealing Antarctica’s secrets
1 January, 2004 by Eric Wolff
In the clamour of predictions about future climate changes, it can be difficult to get hold of facts. However, by drilling ice cores from polar ice sheets and analysing them,…Found 6034 items
1 January, 2004 by Eric Wolff
In the clamour of predictions about future climate changes, it can be difficult to get hold of facts. However, by drilling ice cores from polar ice sheets and analysing them,…1 June, 2003 by Mark Clilverd
Cold plasma mass density profiles in the plasmasphere have been determined for the geomagnetically quiet day of 19th August 2000 using the cross-phase technique applied to ground-based magnetometer data from…1 January, 2003
Ridges have been observed at the bonds between sintering snow grains. Images collected using the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and x-ray analysis of Antarctic snow are presented. These indicate the…1 January, 2003 by Eric Wolff
Determining the microphysical location of impurities in natural ice from the polar regions is necessary for understanding the physical properties of ice and for assuring the integrity of ice core…Read more on SEM studies of the morphology and chemistry of polar ice
1 January, 2003
The Neptune Range of the Pensacola Mountains, East Antarctica, exposes a record of Early Palaeozoic to Early Mesozoic polyphase deformation along the former East Antarctic margin of Gondwana that is…1 January, 2003 by Adrian Jenkins, Hugh Corr, Keith Nicholls
We have collected polarimetric ice sounding radar data on Brunt, George VI and Ronne ice shelves using a vector network analyser as a continuous wave step-frequency radar. Being a wideband…1 January, 2003
The timing and synchronisation of Greenland and Antarctic climate events that occurred during the last glacial period are still under debate, as is the magnitude of temperature change associated with…1 January, 2003 by Hilmar Gudmundsson
During a period of diurnal fluctuations in glacial flow speed, vertical strain was measured with sub-daily temporal resolution on Unteraargletscher, Switzerland. Mean vertical strain in boreholes up to 300-m deep…Read more on Diurnal variations in vertical strain observed in a temperate valley glacier
1 January, 2003
Earthquake data from the Scotia Arc to early 2002 are reviewed in the light of satellite gravity and other data in order to derive a model for the motion of…1 January, 2003
A conceptual model is proposed where bulk transtension, or local transtension during bulk simple shear (resulting from mantle anisotropy- or lithosphere rheology contrasts), of heterogeneously enriched lithospheric mantle, trigger localised…1 January, 2003 by Dominic Hodgson, David Vaughan, Gareth Marshall, John King, John Turner, Robert Mulvaney
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirmed that mean global warming was 0.6 +/- 0.2degreesC during the 20th century and cited anthropogenic increases in greenhouse gases as the likely…Read more on Recent rapid regional climate warming on the Antarctic Peninsula
1 December, 2002 by Gareth Marshall, John King, John Turner, Steve Colwell
During the Austral summer of 2001/02 exceptionally heavy sea ice conditions were experienced over the eastern Weddell Sea. Satellite microwave imagery showed that large negative (positive) ice anomalies were present…1 October, 2002 by Mark Clilverd
Wave-particle interactions driven by whistler mode waves in the inner Van Allan belt is an important loss process for the energetic electrons found in this region. In this paper we…1 January, 2002 by Eric Wolff, Robert Mulvaney
The microstructure and location of impurities in polar ice are of great relevance to ice core studies. We describe a reliable method to examine ice in the scanning electron microscope…Read more on A technique for the examination of polar ice using the scanning electron microscope
1 January, 2002 by Eric Wolff, Robert Mulvaney
Samples taken from the Dome C ice core, Antarctica, and the GRIP ice core, Greenland, are examined using the scanning electron microscope to determine their microstructure. In both cores, samples…1 January, 2002 by Alistair Crame
Cretaceous radiation of angiosperms from low to high palaeolatitudes, coupled with the break-up of Gondwana, played a major role in establishing and maintaining biogeographic patterns across the southern hemisphere. Uncertainties…Read more on Cretaceous patterns of floristic change in the Antarctic Peninsula
1 January, 2002 by Adrian Jenkins, Hugh Corr
The polarization behaviour of radar waves transmitted through two Antarctic ice shelves has been investigated using a step frequency radar with a centre frequency of 300 MHz and a bandwidth…Read more on Polarization of radio waves transmitted through Antarctic ice shelves
1 January, 2002
The opening of Powell Basin was part of the regional response to N55°W relative plate motion of South America away from Antarctica, which led to the formation of Drake Passage…Read more on Opening history of Powell Basin, Antarctic Peninsula
1 January, 2002 by Ed King
A new airborne magnetic survey of the southeastern Antarctic Peninsula and adjacent Weddell Sea embayment (WSE) region suggests a continuity of geological structure between the eastern Antarctic Peninsula and the…1 January, 2002
We analysed concentrations of cadmium, lead, mercury and selenium in blood from males and females of the 2 sibling species of giant petrels, the northern Macronectes halli and the southern…1 January, 2002 by Robert Mulvaney
The European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA) includes a comprehensive pre-site survey on the inland ice plateau of Dronning Maud Land. This paper focuses on the investigation of…Read more on Stable-isotope records from Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica
1 January, 2002 by Robert Larter
The Pacific margin of the Antarctic Peninsula to the southwest of the Hero Fracture Zone (HFZ) is a former subducting margin which became inactive following the arrival of ridge crest…Read more on Post-subduction margin structures along Boyd Strait, Antarctic Peninsula
1 January, 2002 by Robert Mulvaney
Detailed chemical analysis of the 122 m, relatively high-altitude and lowmelt Lomonosovfonna ice core provides the best-dated record of nitrate from Svalbard. A very significant non-linear trend present in the…Read more on A 800 year record of nitrate from the Lomonosovfonna ice core, Svalbard
1 January, 2002
A re-compilation of magnetic data in the Weddell Sea is presented and compared with the gravity field recently derived from retracked satellite altimetry. The previously informally named 'Anomaly-T,' an cast-west…Read more on Seafloor spreading in the Weddell Sea from magnetic and gravity data
1 January, 2002 by Eric Wolff, Robert Mulvaney
In the past, ionic analyses of deep ice cores tended to consist of a few widely spaced measurements that indicated general trends in concentration. The ion-chromatographic methods widely used provide…1 January, 2002 by Robert Mulvaney
Two medium-depth ice cores were retrieved from Berkner Island by a joint project between the Alfred-Wegener-Institut and the British Antarctic Survey in the 1994/95 field season. A151mdeep core from the…Read more on 1000 year ice-core records from Berkner Island, Antarctica
1 January, 2002 by Eric Wolff, Robert Mulvaney
A compilation of nitrate (NO(3)(-)) data from Greenland has shown that recent NO(3)(-) concentrations reveal a temperature dependence similar to that seen in Antarctica. Except for sites with very low…1 January, 2002 by Richard Horne
[1] Relativistic (> 1 MeV) 'killer electrons' are frequently generated in the Earth's inner magnetosphere during the recovery phase of a typical magnetic storm. We test the hypothesis that the…1 January, 2002
Ar–Ar dating of high-strain ductile mylonites of the Eastern Palmer Land Shear Zone in the southern Antarctic Peninsula indicates that reverse movement on the shear zone occurred in late Early…1 January, 2002
New structural and age data suggest that West Gondwana may have been at lower palaeolatitudes than previously interpreted from Albian sequences in Gondwana marginal suspect terranes. The Palmer Land event,…1 January, 2002
Operation Chastise, more often known as the ‘Dambusters raids’, was one of the most audacious aerial military operations of the Second World War, in that it made use of operationally…Read more on The science and scientific legacy of Operation Chastise
1 January, 2001
Bathymetric and seismic data show that the southernmost segment of the EastScotia Ridge (segment E9) is anomalous in its curved plan form, and in the presence of a large axial…1 January, 2001
Early Paleozoic orogenesis has been recognized along the southern African (Saldanian orogeny) and East Antarctic (Ross orogeny) sectors of the Gondwana paleo- Pacific margin. However, the absence of a contemporaneous…1 January, 2001 by Richard Hindmarsh, Richard Hindmarsh
Marine ice sheets with mechanics described by the shallow-ice approximation by definition do not couple mechanically with the shelf. Such ice sheets are known to have neutral equilibria. We consider…Read more on Dynamical processes involved in the retreat of marine ice sheets
1 January, 2001 by Robert Mulvaney
In 1997 a 121 m ice core was retrieved from Lomonosovfonna, the highest ice field in Spitsbergen, Svalbard (1250 m a.s.l.). Radar measurements indicate an ice depth of 126.5 m,…1 January, 2001 by Richard Hindmarsh, Richard Hindmarsh
We use a self-gravitating viscoelastic model of the Earth and a dynamically consistent marine ice-sheet model to study the relationships between marine ice-sheet dynamics, relative sea level, basal topography and…1 January, 2001
This paper deals with present-day gravity changes in response to the evolving Greenland ice sheet. We present a detailed computation from a 3-D thermomechanical ice sheet model that is interactively…1 January, 2001 by Eric Wolff
Assessing changes in heavymetals concentrations in Antarcticsnow dated from the last century is of high interest to determine to which extent the most remote regions of our planet are contaminated…1 January, 2001
El margen proto-andino de Gondwana ha sido el escenario de al menos dos orogénesis desde el desmembramiento del supercontinente Rodinia al final del Neoprotrozoico, hasta el reagrupamiento de las masas…1 January, 2001
The cryosphere is a key component of the Earth system, with important linkages and feedbacks affecting the radiative balance of the planet, the circulation of the oceans and atmosphere, global…30 December, 2000
We have identified first evidence for the presence of submarine hydrothermal activity along the East Scotia Ridge an isolated back-arc spreading centre located at 55–60°S in the Atlantic sector of…1 January, 2000
Interpretation of an airborne magnetic data compilation containing a key, new survey, together with re-tracked satellite gravity data from the WeddellSeaembayment (WSE), West Antarctica, suggests Rift–Rift–Rift triplejunction formation at the…Read more on Relics of a complex triple junction in the Weddell Sea embayment, Antarctica
1 January, 2000
New bathymetric and magnetic anomaly data from the Phoenix Ridge, Antarctica, show that extinction of all three remaining segments occurred at the time of magnetic chron C2A (3.3 ± 0.2…Read more on Autopsy on a dead spreading center: The Phoenix Ridge, Drake Passage, Antarctica
1 January, 2000
New swath bathymetric, multichannel seismic and magnetic data reveal the complexity of the intersection between the extinct West Scotia Ridge (WSR) and the Shackleton Fracture Zone (SFZ), a first-order NW-SE…Read more on Tectonics of an extinct ridge-transform intersection, Drake Passage (Antarctica)
1 January, 2000
The motion field of the northern Larsen Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, was analyzed using radar interferometry in combination with field measurements and finite-element model calculations. The ice shelf between Jason…1 January, 2000
A major ductile fault zone, the eastern Palmer Land shear zone, has been identified east of the spine of the southern Antarctic Peninsula. This shear zone separates newly identified geological…1 January, 2000 by Eric Wolff
Ice cores are an excellent way of finding out how the atmosphere has changed because climate signals and many forcing factors for climate are present in the same core. Their…1 January, 1999 by Eric Wolff
In this paper we first summarise major findings of recent atmospheric studies of nitrogen and sulphur species present in the boundary layer of coastal Antarctic regions. We then discuss the…1 January, 1999 by Philip Leat
The Middle Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous Fossil Bluff Group of Alexander Island, Antarctica represents the fill of a fore-arc basin unconformably overlying an accretionary complex. Like most fore-arc basins, this example had…1 January, 1999
The Auriga Nunataks shear zone places new tectonic and temporal constraints on the Mesozoic evolution of West Antarctica. The shear zone is a long-lived, arc-orthogonal, ductile transfer fault that preserves…1 January, 1999 by Eric Wolff
As part of the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica, a new deep ice core is being drilled at Dome C. Two electrical methods have been used on the…Read more on Comparison of Holocene electrical records from Dome C and Vostok, Antarctica
1 January, 1998
The North Scotia Ridge is a series of islands and submarine ridges extending 2000 km from Tierra del Fuego to South Georgia in the western South Atlantic. The ridge forms…1 January, 1998
The Falkland Islands lie on a displaced crustal block presently forming part of the South American plate. The islands possess two roughly orthogonal structural grains, the relative chronology of which…1 January, 1998
Strontium isotope stratigraphy provides a chronology for Cenozoic cryogenic strata in the northern Antarctic Peninsula and allows an assessment of diachronism in onset of glacial conditions between East and West…1 January, 1998
The breakup of ice shelves has been widely regarded as an indicator of climate change1, with observations around the Antarctic Peninsula having shown a pattern of gradual retreat, associated with…Read more on Breakup and conditions for stability of the northern Larsen Ice Shelf, Antarctica
1 January, 1998
The Mesozoic Fossil Bluff Group of Alexander Island contains trench-slope and forearc basin deposits that formed during the eastward subduction of oceanic crust beneath the Antarctic Peninsula region. The oldest…1 January, 1998
Lichens have a primary role in the biodeterioration of rock substrata and in soil formation. In extreme Antarctic rock-face habitats, their exposed epilithic growth form makes them vulnerable to environmental…1 January, 1998
We describe the calibration and interpretation of interferograms generated from ERS-I synthetic aperture radar Single Look Complex (SAR. SLC) images of the Rutford Ice Stream area. Ground surveys provide over…1 January, 1998 by Robert Larter
Quantitative estimates of the rates and azimuths of Phoenix plate convergence with the Antarctic Peninsula have been derived from plate rotation calculations for two periods in the Late Cretaceous and…Read more on Late Cretaceous to early Tertiary subduction history of the Antarctic Peninsula
1 January, 1998
A new multi-disciplinary study of the central Sierras Pampeanas encompasses fieldwork, petrography, metamorphic and micro-structural analysis, geochemistry and geochronology. Remnants of a low-to-medium grade metasedimentary sequence, which also occurs in…1 January, 1998
Ar–Ar laserprobe dating suggests that in western Palmer Land, plutons associated with a curvilinear belt of positive magnetic anomalies along the Pacific margin of the Antarctic Peninsula, the Pacific Margin…1 January, 1998 by David Vaughan
A digital elevation model (DEM) of the surface of the Antarctic ice sheet is compared with a simple two-dimensional ice-flow model to illuminate gross distortions (>500 m) of the ice-surface…1 August, 1997 by Robert Larter
Despite a spreading rate of 65–70 km Ma−1, the East Scotia Ridge has, along most of its length, a form typically associated with slower rates of sea floor spreading. This…Read more on Subduction influence on magma supply at the East Scotia Ridge
1 February, 1997
The Ellsworth Mountains, West Antarctica, consist of two mountain ranges; the Sentinel, and Heritage ranges. The more southerly Heritage Range is composed of a lower Paleozoic sedimentary and volcanic rock…1 June, 1996 by Robert Larter
Multichannel seismic reflection profiles from the continental rise west of the Antarctic Peninsula between 63° and 69°S show the growth of eight very large mound-shaped sedimentary bodies. MCS profiles and…Read more on Giant sediment drifts on the continental rise west of the Antarctic Peninsula
1 January, 1996
Zircon and apatite fission-track data from the LeMay Group accretionary complex and Fossil Bluff Group fore-arc basin sequence on Alexander Island (Antarctica) record a common regional Cretaceous and Cenozoic thermal…1 January, 1996 by Eugene Murphy, Philip Trathan
Additional material is available online through the South Georgia GIS project - http://www.sggis.gov.gs/1 January, 1996 by Richard Hindmarsh, Richard Hindmarsh
An analysis of the linear stability of marine ice sheets uncoupled from associated ice shelves is presented. The principal feature is a zero eigenvalue associated with infinitesimal shifts along the…Read more on Stability of ice rises and uncoupled marine ice sheets
1 January, 1996 by Ed King
The Weddell Sea, part of the circumpolar Southern Ocean, is probably the most remote, least known and least accessible sea in the world. Difficult ice conditions have limited the acquisition…Read more on Weddell Sea tectonics and Gondwana break-up: an introduction
1 January, 1996 by Ed King
A re-evaluation of Weddell Sea magnetic anomaly data, in the light of satellite gravity maps, provides important constraints on plate kinematics prior to chron C34 (83 Ma). Although M-series anomalies…Read more on Mesozoic seafloor spreading in the southern Weddell Sea
1 January, 1996
Combined sedimentological, structural, and geochemical studies of a lower Paleozoic succession within the Pensacola Mountains, Antarctica, suggest that it probably formed in a foreland basin setting during the Ross-Delamerian orogen,…1 January, 1996
This review of the tectonic evolution of the Antarctic Peninsula during Mesozoic times highlights four main events; (1) Late Triassic-Late Jurassic extension, (2) Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous dextral transpression, (3) Early…1 November, 1995 by Eric Wolff
Polar ice caps preserve information about atmospheric composition over the past tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years. They contain a rich history of the Earth's volcanic activity,…Read more on Interpreting natural climate signals in ice cores
1 January, 1995
Experimental data suggest that some igneous mafic inclusions are formed at the interface between underlying mafic magma and more silicic magma in a reservoir by a process of gas exsolution…1 January, 1995
Evidence of short-lived episodes of mid-Cretaceous deformation, metamorphism, uplift, and hiatus in sedimentation is widespread in the Lower Cretaceous rocks that bordered the Cretaceous Pacific basin. I present a model…Read more on Circum-Pacific mid-Cretaceous deformation and uplift: A superplume-related event?
1 December, 1994 by Robert Larter
The main provinces of the South Shetland margin, Antarctic Peninsula characterized on the basis of multichannel seismic, long-range side scan sonar and swath bathymetry data, include from northwest to southeast…Read more on Forearc tectonic evolution of the South Shetland Margin, Antarctic Peninsula
1 June, 1994
The LeMay Group of Alexander Island, Antarctica, is a Mesozoic accretionary prism that contains slivers of ocean floor and ocean island material, accreted under a range of conditions and depths.…1 January, 1994
Snow surfaces in the polar regions have uniform reflecting properties over large areas. Slopes are usually low-in Antarctica, they rarely exceed 2/spl deg/ except in mountainous regions. Such low slopes…Read more on A simple shape-from-shading algorithm applied to images of ice-covered terrain
1 January, 1994 by Andy Smith
Seismic measurements of ice- and water column thickness have been made on Rudard Ice Stream where it joins the Ronne Ice Shelf. Assuming that the ice is in hydrostatic equilibrium,…Read more on Sea-bed depths at the mouth of Rutford Ice Stream, Antarctica
1 January, 1994 by David Vaughan
The positions of ice-stream grounding zones are uniquely sensitive to changes in the mass balance of the ice sheet. Present methods for locating groundingzone features are either imprecise or require…Read more on Investigating tidal flexure on an ice shelf using kinematic GPS
1 January, 1994 by Eric Wolff
A snow crystal has been successfully collected on to a scanning electron microscope (SEM) stub in central Greenland. It was preserved at liquid-nitrogen temperature for 5 months, prior to examination…Read more on Capture and scanning electron microscopy of individual snow crystals
1 January, 1994
Halley is a scientific station on the Brunt Ice Shelf, Antarctica. The three main buildings are wooden single-storey structures supported about 5 metres above the snow surface by steel platforms…Read more on The performance of a surface station on an Antarctic ice shelf
1 January, 1993
Isotope and chemical analyses of the GRIP ice core from Summit, central Greenland, reveal that climate in Greenland during the last interglacial period was characterized by a series of severe…Read more on Climate instability during the last interglacial period recorded in the GRIP ice core