The most comprehensive and high-resolution atlas of the seafloor of both Polar Regions is being presented today at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly (EGU) in Vienna. The map has been recently published as Memoir 46 of the Geological Society of London. Continue reading
‘We’ve built our entire world around water. Our temperature scale, our bodies. Water shapes our continents, flows through our oceans and rivers, creates atmosphere and weather – this one substance does all of that. And we’ve got to a point where we’re so used to it, we ignore it.’ Alok Jha has written about a … Continue reading
Earth Science Week is nearly upon us, and there’s a huge range of activities going on across the UK & Ireland! There’s also lots going on online, including a brand new project we’re really excited about…. Ask a Geologist Live! Continue reading
A guest post from Martin Siegert, Professor of Geosciences at the University of Bristol and Principal Investigator of the NERC Lake Ellsworth Consortium. Martin will be giving the final Shell Lecture of 2013, ‘Lakes Beneath the Ice’, on 18 December. Find out more Lake Ellsworth in West Antarctica is similar in size and topographic setting … Continue reading
The Earth’s magnetic poles might feel like a constant – north is north, south is south – but they turn out to be a lot more complicated than that, as we found out yesterday in our event at the British Science Festival in Aberdeen, where Kathy Whaler, Conall Mac Niocaill and Ciaran Beggan took our … Continue reading
Seeing the huts of these early expeditions and experiencing in a slight way what the weather can be like here, even at the height of summer, brings a new dimension to, and a deeper appreciation of the achievements of the Scott and Shackleton expeditions. Continue reading
Extending east from Cape Crozier, the front of the Ross Ice Shelf is a 30 metre high vertical wall of ice. It’s a remarkable feature, especially when you realise that it’s fresh water, it’s floating, and about 90% of it is underwater. With an area of 487,000 square kilometres, the Ross Ice Shelf is the … Continue reading
On Friday, back in our harbour in the fast ice between Capes Royds and Evans on Ross Island, we realised we are the most southerly ship on the planet. To get here this early in the season we’ve had to crunch our way through 900 miles of pack ice. The previous day, we landed on … Continue reading
So far, the geology on this trip has faced some stiff competion from history and penguins, but on tuesday it came into its own. We moved across McMurdo Sound overnight and into the fast ice on the west coast, ready for an assault on the Dry Valleys. It was a lovely sunny day on the … Continue reading
Taking a circuitous route through the pack ice, we finally made it to Frankin Island at 76 degrees south. We got the ship to within 5 miles, then flew in by helicopter, landing on the sea ice at the southeastern end of the island about a mile and a half from a colony of Emperor … Continue reading
