Small window of opportunity left to preserve Antarctica’s ‘sleeping giant’ A new study suggests the worst effects of global warming on Earth’s largest ice sheet can be avoided if the world meets the climate targets outlined in the Paris Agreement—but if we fail, then the melting of the ice sheet will have a drastic impact […]

What lies beneath Antarctica could destabilise icesheet A new study suggests rising global temperatures could trigger vulnerabilities in the bedrock beneath the Earth’s largest ice sheet in Antarctica and cause rapid sea level rise. The sedimentary basins that lie beneath Antarctica are fundamental to ice sheet flow, but until now were poorly understood. Co-author of […]

A huge Atlantic ocean current is slowing down. If it collapses, La Niña could become the norm for Australia By Matthew England, UNSW Sydney; Andréa S. Taschetto, UNSW Sydney, and Bryam Orihuela-Pinto, UNSW Sydney Climate change is slowing down the conveyor belt of ocean currents that brings warm water from the tropics up to the North […]

The collapse of the Conger Ice Shelf Satellite data from 17 March 2022 shows the Conger ice shelf collapsed in Antartica. Credit: USNIC This month, the entire Conger Ice Shelf—an area of 1200 sq kms, which is as large as New York City, or Rome—collapsed in East Antarctica after a heat wave. But what impact […]

Antarctica and the Southern Ocean: insights from the 2022 IPCC WGII report The Australian Antarctic Program Partnership (AAPP) and the Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science (ACEAS) have released a report on IPCC WGII key findings for Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Over time, greenhouse gas emissions have caused observable changes in Antarctica and the Southern […]