Tag Archives: Antarctica

Newly-discovered active volcano could erupt underneath ice in Antarctica and add to effects of global warming, say scientists

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A newly-discovered active volcano could erupt underneath Antarctica, melting the ice from below and compounding the effects of global warming, according to scientists.

Researchers discovered the volcano underneath the ice after setting up devices to measure tectonic activity across Marie Byrd Land in the west of the continent.

Scientists had intended to use the seismograph machines to help in their efforts to weight the ice sheet – only to find that a volcano was in fact forming underneath the ice.

Volcanic activity was discovered around 30 miles from Antarctica’s highest volcano, Mount Sidley, and although an eruption would be unlikely to breach the ice – the accompanying heat could have an effect on the landscape.
Even a sub-glacial eruption would still be able to melt ice, creating huge amounts of water which could flow beneath the ice and towards the sea – hastening the flow of the overlying ice and potentially speed up the rate of ice sheet loss.

 

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The coldest place on earth: Antarctica sets new record with minus 135.8F

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Just looking at this map of the coldest places on Earth is enough to make you chilly.

East Antarctica has set a new record for ‘soul-crushing’ cold, recording 135.8 degrees Fahrenheit below zero on the mercury, or minus 93.2 degrees Celsius, according to data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Scientists say that is so cold it hurts to breathe.

A new look at NASA satellite data revealed that Earth set a new record for coldest temperature recorded on August 2010, then on July 31 of this year, it came close again, getting to minus 135.3 degrees, again in East Antarctica. The old record had been -128.6 degrees, which is -89.2 degrees Celsius.

Ice scientist Ted Scambos said the new record is ’50 degrees colder than anything that has ever been seen in Alaska or Siberia or certainly North Dakota.’

 

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However, it won’t be in the Guinness Book of World Records because these were satellite measured, not from thermometers, Scambos said.

‘Thank God, I don’t know how exactly it feels,’ Scambos said. But he said scientists do routinely make naked 100 degree below zero dashes outside in the South Pole, so people can survive that temperature for about three minutes.

Just because one spot on Earth has set records for cold that has little to do with global warming because it is one spot in one place, said Waleed Abdalati, an ice scientist at the University of Colorado and NASA’s former chief scientist.