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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 […]
Southern Ocean takes on the heat of climate change Of all the oceans on Earth, the Southern Ocean does the lion’s share at slowing the pace of climate change by absorbing most of the excess heat trapped in the planet’s atmosphere, say scientists from the ARC Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science (ACEAS) at UNSW […]
Ocean warming and sea-level rise are on a fast track The results of the study are based on many thousands of measurements taken from across the globe—including from the Southern Ocean, which warms at a much faster rate than the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Image credit: CSIRO Marine National Facility. Researchers from the ARC Australian […]
Scientists map heat beneath Antarctica’s icesheets Fieldwork in Queen Mary Land collecting geophysical and geological data. Image: Tobias Stål. Researchers from the ARC Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science (ACEAS) at the University of Tasmania are helping predict future sea level rise by taking a closer look at what goes on beneath Antarctica’s icesheets. “Heat moving […]
Voyage of discovery to the East Antarctic margin CSIRO research vessel (RV) Investigator and the team that are on their way to the East Antarctic margin. A Geoscience Australia-led scientific voyage has departed Perth this week for East Antarctica aboard CSIRO research vessel (RV) Investigator. During this 7-week voyage, researchers will seek insights into the flow […]
Plan A to Z By Dr Alix Post The team on board CSIRO’s RV Investigator. Photo credit: Aero Leplastrier. Just over a month ago, our team set out on CSIRO’s research vessel (RV) Investigator with great anticipation of the planned science and the discoveries that we might make, after months (and years) of detailed planning. However, as […]
Team onboard RV Investigator sampling a kasten core (Image: Helen Bostock) By Tom Williams (UTAS) and Helen Bostock (UQ) To understand our changing climate today and improve predictions about future climate we need to have long climate records to compare to. But instrumental data only reach back a century, and we don’t have much data […]
Examples of microfossils that we use to study how the marine environment has changed over time. On board the research vessel (RV) Investigator there are several researchers on the expedition who are taking water and sediment samples to study ‘plankton’. Plankton means that they can’t swim against a current, most plankton are tiny, but some are large […]
Geomorphology beneath the deep blue sea By Rachel Nanson and Michal Wenderlich, Geoscience Australia Fig 1. One of RV Investigator’s geophysicists, Francisco Navidad, continually monitors and records incoming data. On the 7000 km transit south to Antarctica and then in the study area of Cape Darnley, the CSIRO research vessel (RV) Investigator’s technical staff and science team have […]
Antarctica and the Southern Ocean have historically been the domain of male explorers and scientists. For many years women were not allowed to sail on ships as it was considered bad luck (despite the fact that ships are often referred to as females!). Over the last few decades that has been changing with increasing numbers […]