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Amundsen Sea News

01 Nov 2023

Biggest Chinese Antarctic Fleet Sets Off to Build Research Station

Credit: Timo Palo - Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 3.0 DEED

Two Chinese icebreaker research vessels and a cargo ship set sail on Wednesday for the Antarctic with more than 460 personnel on board to help complete construction of China's fifth station on the world's southernmost continent.China's biggest flotilla of research vessels deployed to the Antarctic will focus on building the station on the rocky, windswept Inexpressible Island near the Ross Sea, a deep Southern Ocean bay named after a 19th century British explorer.Work on the first Chinese station in the Pacific sector began in 2018.

03 Feb 2017

Expedition to Glaciers of Antarctic

How has the West Antarctic Ice Sheet changed in response to alternating warm and cold time periods? And what does it mean for the sea level – today and tomorrow? Pursuing answers to these key questions, 50 researchers on board the Alfred Wegener Institute’s research vessel Polarstern are going to depart from Punta Arenas (Chile) on 6 February 2017, bound for the Amundsen Sea – the region of the Antarctic currently characterised by the most massive and rapid loss of ice. In the course of the expedition, the seafloor drill rig MARUM-MeBo70 will be used in the Antarctic for the first time. Rifts in the Larsen Ice Shelf and the Brunt Ice Shelf, which is home to the UK’s Halley Research Station, are being closely observed.

12 May 2014

Scientists Say Antarctic Glaciers in 'Irreversible' Thaw

Image credit: British Antarctic Survey

Vast glaciers in West Antarctica seem to be locked in an irreversible thaw linked to global warming that may push up sea levels for centuries, scientists said on Monday. Six glaciers, eaten away from below by a warming of sea waters around the frozen continent, were flowing fast into the Amundsen Sea, according to the report based partly on satellite radar measurements from 1992 to 2011. Evidence shows "a large sector of the West Antarctic ice sheet has gone into a state of irreversible retreat"…

23 Apr 2014

Huge Iceberg Broken off Antarctica Heads for Open Ocean

Pine Island Glacier rift seen from the Digital Mapping System camera aboard NASA's DC-8 on Oct. 26, 2011 (Image Credit: NASA / DMS)

Scientists are monitoring an iceberg roughly six times the size of Manhattan - one of the largest now in existence - that broke off from an Antarctic glacier and is heading into the open ocean. NASA glaciologist Kelly Brunt said on Wednesday the iceberg covers about 255 square miles (660 square km) and is up to a third of a mile (500 meters) thick. Known as B31, the iceberg separated from Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier last November, Brunt added. "It's one that's large enough that it warrants monitoring," Brunt said in a telephone interview, noting that U.S.

20 Aug 1999

Iceberg Poses Threat To Mariners In Southern Ocean

A large iceberg has entered shipping lanes between the Antarctic Peninsula and South America. The iceberg, named B-10A, measures 24 by 48 statute miles and could pose a hazard for mariners operating in the Southern Ocean, the National Ice Center reported. B-10A is presently located in the vicinity of Latitude 58 degrees, 36 minutes South, Longitude 57 degrees West, and is drifting southeast at approximately 7 to 9 miles per day. Smaller icebergs are breaking off B-10A as it moves into relatively warmer water. A cautionary zone has been established 165 miles in radius around the center point of B-10A. B-10, the “parent” iceberg from which B-10A formed, was once a piece of the Thwaites Ice Tongue, an extension of the Thwaites Glacier.