Nancy Etchemendy writes: Hi, everyone -- Our fascinating Antarctic iceberg research voyage aboard the NSF icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer is over now and we are safely home again enjoying the warmth and light of summer. But my two blogs about the trip will remain online as a polar teaching resource for kids of all ages. Over the next few months, I will continue to enrich both blogs with high-quality links to sites of related interest and with additional facts about the subject material -- icebergs, the Antarctic oceans, global warming, Antarctic sea life, scientific method, and much more. Both blogs can be accessed via icebreakerblog.org ...

Contents: 1. Report from St Petersburg meetings and conference 2. Plans for February 25th, 2009 3. Upcoming Polar Days: People & Above The Poles 4. Call for Sessions at Oslo Science Conference June 2010 Report no. 15, July 2008 From: IPY International Programme Office To: IPY Project Coordinators cc: IPY Community Google Groups 1. Report from St Petersburg meetings and conference Many members of the IPY Community are currently meeting in St Petersburg and Moscow for a range of business meetings as well as participation in the SCAR/IASC Open Science Conference. So far, the events have been a great success. We have so far participated in meetings for the IPY Joint Committee...

What's it like to be a research scientist working in the Arctic and Antarctica? In celebration of the International Polar Year, the Exploratorium gave polar scientists cameras and blogs and asked them to document their fieldwork in real time. The result is a groundbreaking Web-based project, Ice Stories: Dispatches from Polar Scientists (http://icestories.exploratorium.edu), where you can follow along on the scientists’ research, ask questions, and share ...

This year's TUNZA Children's conference took place in Stavanger, Norway from 16th 20th June, 2008 focusing on the theme Creating Change. It brought together 1000 people from 105 countries, including 700 children between the ages of 10 and 14 and 300 chaperones. The children gave presentations and produced some wonderful posters on climate change and energy issues. It was a truly inspiring event and one which IPY was privileged to be a part of. The week started off really well with a well...

An international team of researchers was able to provide evidence of explosive volcanism in the deeps of the ice-covered Arctic Ocean for the first time. Researchers from an expedition to the Gakkel Ridge, led by the American Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), report in the current issue of the journal Nature that they discovered, with a specially developed camera, extensive layers of volcanic ash on the seafloor, which indicates a gigantic volcanic eruption. ³Explosive volcanic eruptions on land are nothing unusual and pose a great threat for whole areas,² explains Dr Vera Schlindwein of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association. She participated in the expedition as a geophysicist and has been, together with her tea...

Dear Rhian and IPY, I am writing in order to let you know about the most recent IPY Day in Brazil (18/06). I work at two different schools in Brazil: Colégio Neruda, in Araraquara, SP, and Colégio Puríssimo Coração de Maria, in Rio Claro, SP. At Colégio Neruda, after we discussed the importance of the Poles and climate change, the students made posters to express their impressions and concerns about those matters. We will send some of the posters to students in other countries, with whom they will exchange opi...

At the start of the season, we are trying to assess the season as quick as possible. Which goose is nesting where, and how many eggs are in the nest. During a visit on the island Storholmen in the Kings Bay at Spitsbergen, I came across this old lady. I ringed this goose green PA in 1991, when she was already an adult. She knows the drill as well as I do and does not want to spend much energy on resistance. I lift her up, read the ring and count the eggs. At other arctic sites, there seems to be a lot of snow and incubation has been delayed. In my study area, despite the large amount of snow, nesting sites were available and nesting started at about a similar time as last year. Clutch size is low with an average of 3.6 goose eggs per nest after the first checks. Glaucous gull...

MEDIA ADVISORY JUNE 18TH: POLAR LAND AND LIFE DAY On June 18th, 2008, the International Polar Year 2007-8 (IPY) launches its fifth ‘International Polar Day' focusing on Land and Life: the plants and animals of polar lands and the changing permafrost and hydrologic systems. This Polar Day occurs as hundreds of researchers focus on Arctic environments. It has been timed in conjunction with the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost (NICOP) in Fairbanks, Alaska, and the UNEP TUNZ...

Contents: 1. IPY events in St Petersburg, July 2008 2. Land and Life Day 3. APECS Report 4. Videos on IPY.org 5. IPY events and activities Report no. 14, June 2008 From: IPY International Programme Office To: IPY Project Coordinators cc: IPY Community Google Groups 1. IPY events in St Petersburg, July 2008 Several IPY meetings and workshops are occurring before and during the SCAR/IASC Open Science Conference in July. Below we list those that we know of, with location information to the best of our current knowledge. Much of the energy and networking central to IPY is stimulated in events like these - please do consider attending as appropriate....

Adam Soule from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution talks about his volcano research and how Antarctica is sensitive to climate change. As a volcanologist, he will study the lava flows of the past, an important process in an actively evolving planet such as Earth. The products of volcanic eruptions cover more than 2/3's of the Earth's surface and are primary means for transferring heat and mass from the Earth's interior.