Scientists fear its collapse could one day destabilize surrounding glaciers and eventually trigger up to 11 feet of global sea level rise.
New Orleans native Jack Gilmore brought spicy hometown dishes like étouffée and gumbo to the menu aboard a scientific research ship. But he also learned what the warming of Antarctica might mean for his beloved city.
In the spring of 1969, 19-year-old Terry Tickhill Terrell walked into the Institute of Polar Studies at OSU and told the secretary, “Hi, I want a job in Antarctica.”
Oceanographer Anna Wåhlin brought an autonomous submarine aboard the Nathaniel B. Palmer. It traveled underneath Thwaites to map the seafloor below.
How quickly will Antarctica’s massive Thwaites Glacier melt, and what will that mean for global sea levels and coastal cities? Researchers recently spent several weeks studying Thwaites as part of a five-year, international effort to try to answer those pressing questions.
The researchers aboard the Nathaniel B. Palmer are excited to return home after spending weeks studying Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica. While the comfort of their own beds await, there’s also the important work of writing up their research findings.
The research team aboard the Nathaniel B. Palmer is starting to wrap up their work studying Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica. As the Amundsen Sea starts to freeze up, the captain of the ship will be constantly on the lookout for gaps in the ice that will carry the ship home.
The World's Carolyn Beeler has her latest dispatch from a research trip to Antarctica. Climate change researchers aboard the icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer sent a robotic submarine for the first look ever at the seafloor under the massive Thwaites Glacier.
The Nathaniel B. Palmer arrived at Thwaites Glacier on Feb. 26, roughly a month after leaving Punta Arenas, Chile. During its first day in front of the glacier, the Palmer traced a roughly 100-mile path around the edge of Thwaites mapping portions of the sea floor that were previously uncharted.
A medical emergency aboard the Nathaniel B. Palmer sends the ship and reporter Carolyn Beeler back north just as they’re about to reach the Thwaites Glacier.
How quickly will Antarctica’s massive Thwaites Glacier melt, and what will that mean for global sea levels and coastal cities? Researchers are sailing toward Thwaites this month on the first leg of a five-year, international effort to try to answer that pressing question, and along the way they’re enlisting local seals as research assistants.