The Stellar Axis land art project is currently being deployed in Antarctica, to be completed for the Southern hemisphere Summer Solstice on 22 December 2006. Perhaps the largest and most ambitious arts project to take place in Antarctica, Stellar Axis is the work of the internationally known, Los Angeles based artist, Lita Albuquerque, and is sponsored by the US National Science Foundation and US Antarctic Programme. The concept is to mirror the southern constellations through the placement of 99 blue spheres on th...

I thought I was the first Portuguese to study Wandering albatrosses but I was five hundred years too late. When fifteenth-century Portuguese sailors first ventured down the coast of Africa, they encountered large black and white birds with stout bodies, which they called alcatraz, the Portuguese word for large seabirds; English sailors later corrupted alcatraz to albatross. I was studying aspects of their diet and feeding behaviour in ways that could not be done five hundred years ago, information which may help save them from extinction. That made me feel better... Read more here This is an essay...

Aboard Polarstern, bathymetry — the mapping of the seafloor using sonar — is conducted by an international working group. In recent days, they have found a distinct elevation at the seafloor of the Southern Ocean. This structure rises 600 m above ground in an otherwise featureless seascape and is situated about 450 km north of the Antarctic continent. It closely resembles an underwater volcano, presumably still active, which has never been charted on a map. This finding was reported by Elena Pugacheva from the Geographical Institute Moscow and Jan-Hendrik Lott from the University of Karlsruhe. During the expedition, long distances are covered between the continents of Africa, Antarctica and South America. Mapping of the seafloor takes place throughout the journe...

“Polarstern” is currently anchored right next to the ice shelf, which is formed by layers and layers of snow accumulated over thousands of years forming a vertical cliff dropping more than 30m to the sea (surface). Fuel and other goods are being discharged to supply Germany’s Neumayer station in Antarctica. At longitude 8°48' west, this part of East Antarctica’s ice cap is considered stable. The complete opposite is true for the Antarctic Peninsula heading towards the southern tip of South America. This area will form the backdrop for a scientific mission of an expedition that started two weeks ago in Cape Town. During the past 15 years atmospheric warming led to the collapse of major parts of the Larsen A and B ice shelves. These areas together made up only one percent of Antarc...