Topic: Antarctic Peninsula

Antarctic ice tells conflicting story about climate change's role in big melt

Two different areas of Antarctica tell two very different stories about how climate change might be affecting ice melt. The data appear to confirm that climate change impacts can be very local.

West Antarctica warming much faster than expected

Average temperatures in West Antarctica rise 4.3 degrees since 1950s. The region's warming is nearly twice as much as expected and one of the most rapid on the planet. 

Antarctica started warming 600 years ago, study finds

Centuries before fossil fuel emissions began warming the globe, Antarctica was heating up, indicates a new research published in Nature.

Antarctic Peninsula now almost as warm as 12,000 years ago

Rapid warming of the Antarctic Peninsula is bringing temperatures close to the warmth that followed the end of the last ice age, says lead researcher Richard Mulvaney, a paleoclimatologist with the British Antarctic Survey.

Gigantic 'Grand Canyon' buried beneath Antarctic ice (+video)

A humongous rift located under West Antarctica that provides a channel for warm ocean water to creep toward the interior of the ice sheet could be accelerating ice loss, say scientists.

Global warming spells bad news for emperor penguins, study finds

Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have found that melting sea ice could lead to dramatic declines in populations of emperor penguins. 

Is global warming responsible for chinstrap penguin decline? (+video)

A population of chinstrap penguins in Antarctica has seen a 36 percent decline since 1991, in what researchers say is a consequence of declining krill populations. 

Antarctic ice sheet at risk, say scientists

A new study points out an unexpected weakness in the Antarctic ice sheet, which could melt rapidly within the next century, say scientists.

What's to blame for melting Antarctic ice? (+video)

Like a hot beverage melts ice cubes, scientists have determined that warm ocean currents are thinning Antarctic ice.

Study finds way more emperor penguins than previously thought

New satellite data reveals that emperor penguins are far more abundant in Antarctica than previously estimated. 

Alien plant forms invading Antarctica

Green aliens are coming to the southernmost continent on the planet in a most pedestrian manner, according to scientists.

Fossil find could solve lingering Antarctic dinosaur mystery

Scientists report unearthing a Titanosaur fossil in Antarctica. The continent had been the only one lacking evidence of sauropods – dinosaurs with long necks and tails.

Glacier melting a key clue to tracking climate change

Glaciers now occupy the center stage in the debate over causes and impacts of climate change.

If humans didn't cause global warming and cooling in the past, is that evidence they also aren't now?

A closer look at the argument that because the world warmed and cooled naturally in the past, current global warming or climate change isn't the result of human activity or CO2.

New study: Less sea rise expected from possible Antarctic melt

Antarctic voyage

A firsthand look at the effects of climate change near the South Pole.

Climate change messes with the food chain

Column: How a decline in tiny water-based plants is hurting penguin populations.

It's getting warmer in Antarctica

Formal human 'fingerprints' on polar climate

Antarctica's Wilkins Ice Shelf eroding at an unforeseen pace

Scientists say the breakup is a harbinger of what's to come if the region continues warming.