Biogeography and Geological Diversity of Hydrothermal Venting on the Ultra-Slow Spreading

The ACE programme aims to facilitate research in the broad area of Antarctic climate evolution. The programme will link geophysical surveys and geological studies on and around the Antarctic continent with ice-sheet and climate modelling studies. These studies are designed to investigate climate and ice sheet behaviour in both the recent and distant geologic past, including times when global temperature was several degrees warmer than today.

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...

Do you think the North and South poles are boring, lifeless places that have no impact on your life? Think again. The planet's northern (Arctic) and southern (Antarctic) polar areas are teeming with plants, animals and even people. Polar bears and penguins aside, these icy regions at opposite ends of the globe are important pieces in Earth's climate system. An art contest for grades 2-4 challenges U.S. students to pick a polar region, explore it and then draw a picture showing what they learned. This is the 11th annual art contest held by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) in Arlington, VA. The contest supports national science education standards for grades K-4. The winning artist will receive a $250 savings bond, and hi...

By Linda Mackey — Twenty-five Arctic Quest artists followed in the footsteps of great artists and explorers of the past, as they marked the 100th anniversary of Amundsen's 1906 navigation through the Northwest Passage with a journey of their own this summer. During a twelve day voyage aboard the Akademik Ioffe, the group Arctic Quest recorded their impressions on canvas, paper and film as they traveled up the east coast of Baffin Island, Greenland, and parts of the Northwest Passage, ending in Resolute. Every day brought new surprises including icebergs emerging from the fog, waking up to Orca whales, circling incredible icebergs, taking a zodiac ride to the base of the icefields in Illilisat, Greenland, or donating art supplies to Inuit children in the Arctic communi...

By Linda Mackey — Announcing the upcoming launch of a new book by an amazing artist/scientist whose life embraced most of the 20th century. Maurice Haycock was born in Canada in the Victorian era, before cars, phones, radios and air travel. He went on to learn to use a computer at 80 and predicted the coming of the internet. He lived in the Arctic in 1926-27, painted at the North Pole, discovered a mineral which was named "haycockite" after him, was a worldwide recognized geologist and Canada's most travelled Arctic artist. For almost 40 years he travelled andMackey — painted across Canada's northern wilderness. In 2007 his manuscript will be released as a lavish book of Arctic paintings and drawings interspersed with historical notes and fasc...

A biographer's challenge is to rekindle the spirit of a person, and this has recently been accomplished by Stephen Haddelsey in his book Born Adventurer: The Life of Frank Bickerton, Antarctic Pioneer. Bickerton, born in England in 1889, is today largely unknown, though his adventures were daring and remarkable — Haddelsey recounts his travels into the equatorial rainforest of the Cocos Islands and his airplane dogfights over the Western Front during World War I. But it is Bickerton's Antarctic experiences that dominate the book, and...

The International Polar Year 2007-2008, and a wide array of polar sciences, will have a strong presence during the Fall AGU Meetings in San Francisco in December 2006. More than ten oral and poster sessions carry the IPY label or the label of an IPY-endorsed project. More than 30 additonal sessions address polar themes, from ice core science to biogeochemistry of northern watersheds. The IPY IPO has assembled a list of all these polar sessions on a single sheet for your use; here it is, as a PDF. IPY IPO will also operate a display booth, cooperatively with the US NSF Office of Polar Programs. We will share many international materials promoting IPY and operate a polar message cen...

Several traverses across Antarctica are occurring this season, studying the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. They all have very informative and helpful web pages, as well as daily or weekly updates about their progress. Previous Expeditions: More information on previous International Antarctic Traverses can be found on the following pages: Summary of International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expeditions (ITASE) Previous scientific traverses across East Antarctica almost fifty years ago Current Expeditions: ...