Keith Makinson

In January-February, a scientific expedition traveled to Antarctica to study its fastest melting glacier, the Thwaites. You can find out more here (includes photos and videos): www.nytimes.com/live/2025/cl... (gift). 🌎

Journey to the Melting Continent

You can follow @zhonggg.bsky.social and Chang Lee's coverage of the trip to the Thwaites Glacier here. This has got to be the most well-covered research cruise ever. 🌊

To go under Thwaites Glacier, the only way is through ⬇️

This intrepid UK-Korean science team are tunnelling 1000m through one of the world's most unstable ice shelves.

They'll get daily data showing how warm ocean water is melting Thwaites from below - crucial for predicting sea level rise.

We've never seen anyone so enthusiastic to crush ice – but a team of scientists are studying the cracking of ice, and they’re pretty hyped! ❄️

@newscientist.com spoke to members of the RIFT-TIP project, who are investigating how ice shelf fractures grow.

Watch the video here: tinyurl.com/526tn8zz

We've had a Very Important Ice delivery!

These precious ancient ice core samples from Antarctica are expected to reveal a climate record stretching back more than 1.5 million years 🤯

That's further than we've ever looked back before.

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"It is impossible to overstate how critical this region is to our shared future." - @tobyperkinsmp.bsky.social, Chair

Read our report on the UK and the Antarctic environment: publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cm...

This is almost unbelievable. It's now May and there is still virtually no new sea ice forming in the Bellingshausen Sea (lower left region in image).
Image showing sea ice concentration derived from AMSR satellite data is by Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Germany.

The Penguin Book of Penguins A charming and beautifully illustrated book about the world’s most beloved bird, written by a leading Scientist at The British Antarctic Survey, illustrated by his wife. There’s something about pengu...

The Penguin Book of penguins - An Expert's Guide to the World's Most Beloved Bird
by Peter Fretwell and Lisa Fretwell
www.penguin.co.uk/books/464310...

@ptfretwell.bsky.social
@bas.ac.uk
#PenguinBooks #VikingBooksUK

Update on Thwaites Glacier Eastern Ice Shelf from Copernicus Sentinel-1 SAR. Downloadable version here: aluckman4.wixsite.com/ade-s-world-...

Year-end scramble getting you down? ⏳

Applications for lots of our Antarctic #jobs are closing in the next week. They include vehicles manager at Halley, and Radio Operator and IT Engineer at Rothera Research Station.

These are jobs unlike any other, in one of the most beautiful places on Earth ⬇️

Iceberg A23a pictured from the ISS. The space station is almost as far south as it can reach here (51.5° S, 49.0° W - altitude of 422km). Picture taken on 14 March, so the berg had been grounded at South Georgia for a fortnight by this time.

Why scientists were surprised to find life under Antarctic ice shelf The mission was part of Challenger 150, a UNESCO-endorsed global initiative for deep-sea research. The discoveries were announced on Thursday. The findings provide new insights into how ecosystems function beneath floating sections of the Antarctic ice.

Scientists made a stunning discovery beneath an Antarctic ice shelf—thriving life in a world once thought uninhabitable.The breakthrough offers new insights into deep-sea ecosystems and the resilience of life in extreme environments.

indianexpress.com/ar...

1.2 million years - have you heard of ice this old?! 🧊

These ice cores were retrieved as part of the Beyond EPICA - Oldest Ice project, which aims to unlock crucial insights into Earth's past climate and atmospheric conditions

#ice #climate

Read the full story 👇
www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/a...

As polar night ends and sunlight begins to return to Longyearbyen, lets see how the Svalbard seasons progressed last year - from ice-locked fjords in March, through to the first snows of October. Thanks to NASA MODIS via GIBS. Download at full resolution here: aluckman4.wixsite.com/ade-s-world-...

Bedmap3 is now out
rdcu.be/ecTmO

The last Twin Otter aircraft has just left Rothera which marks the end of the field season, and gives us a chance to look back at the support we have provided over the year. We started with fieldwork and air unit maps!

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The world's largest iceberg, A23a, appears to have grounded close to South Georgia. We've been monitoring and mapping this berg for many years now and we're watching closely to see what it might do next! These maps show its route since 1986 and the latest position to the SW of South Georgia ❄️🐧
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Hot off the press - the latest edition of the BAS Long Read! 🔥📰

Get ready to hear from three Antarctic scientists - Dr Emma Pearce, Dr Liz Thomas, and Dr Dieter Tetzner - about their work drilling for ice cores in Antarctica

Grab a coffee, and settle down for a read 👇
www.bas.ac.uk/blogpost/the...

Scientists secure funding to study Greenland and North Atlantic climate tipping points - British Antarctic Survey British Antarctic Survey (BAS) researchers have been selected for funding from The Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) to help improve our understanding of climate tipping points. These tippin...

Here's the @aria-research.bsky.social page about the Forecasting Tipping Points programme. It's well worth a proper read!
🌍 www.aria.org.uk/opportunity-...

Here’s the BAS news story about GRAIL - and three other projects involving BAS researchers:
❄️ tinyurl.com/kzhhha6w

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A new paper about the Antarctic Ice Sheet in a special issue of @science.org reviews critical knowledge gaps in our understanding of how Antarctica responds to variations in global climate.

Antarctica in 2025: Drivers of deep uncertainty in projected ice loss
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Fishing for a glacier's secrets A story of audacious science on an Antarctic ice shelf

Find out why this is the perfect place for an automatic monitoring station to measure ocean temperature, salinity and currents. It's crucial research about potential sea-level rise: are warming waters melting the ice shelf that holds back the glaciers?
▶️ aapp.shorthandstories.com/fishing-for-...

A new iceberg, ~30x14 km in size, recently calved from the southern end of the George VI Ice Shelf. It's called A84 and is already making quite an impact, bumping into the Stange Ice Shelf over the weekend! These Copernicus Sentinel-1 images from Polar View show the new berg over the last few days.

Ancient Antarctic ice loss offers insights into future climate scenarios - British Antarctic Survey Scientists from the University of Cambridge and British Antarctic Survey have used ice core records to draw new conclusions about how Antarctica was affected by increased global temperatures over 100,...

www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/a...

Beautiful Sentinel-2 imagery of George VI Ice Shelf with lots of meltwater from yesterday. The patterns that this water produces is like artwork! Fossil Bluff is shown in the second image, and Hodgson Lake shown in the last - a former subglacial lake sealed under ice thick perennial ice ❄️

Assessing the suitability of sites near Pine Island Glacier for subglacial bedrock drilling aimed at detecting Holocene retreat–readvance Abstract. Unambiguous identification of past episodes of ice sheet thinning below the modern surface and grounding line retreat inboard of present requires recovery and exposure dating of subglacial b...

🔥New paper alert! 🔥🧪❄️🥼

Ever wondered what to consider when drilling through an ice sheet into rock? We take you through how we chose a drill site in West #Antarctica using field observations, samples, radar survey, modelling & satellite imagery.
tc.copernicus.org/articles/19/... @bas.ac.uk

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The Ronne Ice Shelf survived the last interglacial - Nature Sea salt data from an ice core record show that Antarctica’s Ronne Ice Shelf survived the last interglacial, the last period of enhanced and sustained global warmth about 125,000 years ago.

Important paper in Nature today about collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. There is a positive isotope anomaly at Skytrain Ice Rise during the last interglacial, consistent with what we found in our high-resolution water-isotope simulations when WAIS collapses.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The Southern Ocean is a critical part of our planet, exerting profound influences over global climate and ecosystems.

Great to see some of the leading-order priorities for its research elucidated by Earle, @carlosmoffat.com et al.! 🌊🧪🥼❄️

Satellites have transformed our understanding of Earths polar regions, and it's wonderful to see the work of The IMBIE Team recognised by @esa.int as a groundbreaking discovery !

tinyurl.com/mtut9dc6

Yesterday, 22/1, another step on the way was reached with the second reaming pass completed to target depth of 125 m, widening the hole to 209 mm. This leaves the third pass to go, which will widen to final diameter of 260 mm down to 120 m. Derryn, Daniel and Chelsea pictured (📷D.Harvie).

Ice core drilling team diary – Australian Antarctic Program

You can now follow along with the more detailed drilling field diary for MYIC available below, and we will continue posting summary snippets here at bluesky.
www.antarctica.gov.au/science/clim...