Antarctica

Find out everything there is to know about Antarctica and stay updated on the latest Antarctica news with the comprehensive articles, interactive features and Antarctica pictures at LiveScience.com. Learn more about this fascinating continent as scientists continue to make amazing discoveries about Antarctica.

Related Topics: Arctic, Climate Change, Global Warming, Penguins

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The Antarctic coast where the East Antarctic Ice sheet comes into contact with the sea.

City-size lake found miles below Antarctica's biggest ice sheet

By Ben Turner published

Drilling into the lake will enable scientists to track the history of climate change.

Author Chloe Gustafson and mountaineer Meghan Seifert installing a magnetotelluric station on the Whillans Ice Stream, West Antarctica.

'Giant MRI of Antarctica' reveals 'fossil seawater' under ice sheet

By Nicoletta Lanese published

Fossil seawater can be found in the depths of the aquifer.

This Sentinel-1A satellite image shows the C-38 iceberg on March 17, 2022. The iceberg broke off from the Conger Ice Shelf.

Sudden collapse of Antarctic ice shelf could be sign of things to come

By Cameron Duke published

A massive Antarctic ice shelf that covered an area about the size of New York City or Rome just collapsed into the ocean.

Simultaneous heatwaves have hit both polar regions and caused temperatures to rise by at least 50 degrees Fahrenheit in certain areas.

Alarming heat waves hit Arctic and Antarctica at the same time

By Harry Baker published

Simultaneous heat waves have hit the Arctic and Antarctica, raising temperatures by more than 50 degrees in parts of both polar regions.

Antarctic sea ice floats in the water in the Lemaire Channel off of Antarctica.

Antarctic sea ice at record low in February, satellite data reveal

By Patrick Pester published

Antarctic sea-ice extent dropped to a record low in the satellite data in February, but it's likely due to natural variation.

This squat lobster seems to be the star of the Endurance shipwreck.

Shackleton's Endurance shipwreck teeming with extreme creatures

By Tom Metcalfe published

The newly-found wreck of the Endurance was found to be inhabited by some equally extraordinary creatures.

One of the Antarctic expeditions ‘Endurance’ pictured trapped and frozen in the pack ice of the Weddell Sea shortly after the return of the sun after the long Antarctic winter

8 famous Antarctic expeditions

By Patrick Pester published

REFERENCE Antarctic expeditions add to the allure of Antarctica, with tales of achievement, tragedy and against-all-odds survival.

The taffrail and ship’s wheel.

Shackleton's lost Endurance ship discovered beneath Antarctic sea

By Tom Metcalfe published

Ernest Shackleton's lost ice ship Endurance, which famously sank in 1915, has been rediscovered by searchers under Antarctica's Weddell Sea.

A satellite view of iceberg A68

Antarctica's doomed A68 iceberg dumped 1 trillion tons of water into the ocean over 3 years

By Brandon Specktor published

A new study of iceberg A68 (once the world's largest) charts its entire doomed journey, and shows exactly when it started to melt at an alarming rate

Researchers in the Weddell Sea were surprised to find 60 million icefish nests, each guarded by an adult and each holding an average of 1,700 eggs.

Largest fish nursery discovered beneath Weddell Sea in Antarctica

By Cameron Duke published

Scientists onboard an icebreaker in Antarctica were blown away when they spied a trove of 60 million icefish nests dotting the floor of the Weddell Sea.

images of bryozoans found deep beneath antarctic ice shelves

Unimaginable diversity of life discovered beneath Antarctic ice shelf

By Cameron Duke published

An artist's cross-section of Lake Vostok

What is Lake Vostok?

By Becky Oskin, Nicoletta Lanese published

Lake Vostok lies buried under miles of ice in East Antarctica.

This satellite image captured on Nov. 20 by Landsat 8 shows strange wispy ice formations streaking across the sea near Antarctica.

Rare wispy ice formations streak across the sea near Antarctica in beautiful satellite images

By Harry Baker published

Recent satellite images captured by Landsat 8 show a rare windswept sea ice formation over water in Antarctica.

One of the largest glaciers in the world, Thwaites Glacier, is also the most affected by climate change.

Antarctica's 'Doomsday Glacier' could meet its doom within 3 years

By Mindy Weisberger published

Thwaites Glacier is roughly the size of Florida, and holds enough ice to raise sea levels over two feet. New research shows that the collapse of its ice shelf may be just a few years away.

British explorers Justin Packshaw and Jamie Facer Childs are on an 80-day trek across Antarctica. Here, a penguin waddles on drift ice in the Antarctic’s Weddell Sea.

NASA is tracking two explorers across Antarctica to prepare humans for Mars

By Ben Turner published

NASA is tracking two explorers on a 2,268-mile (3,650 kilometers) journey across Antarctica to learn more about humanity's ability to survive on Mars.

Dinosaurs attempt to flee a wildfire on Antarctica during the late Cretaceous.

Wildfires burned Antarctica 75 million years ago, charcoal remnants reveal

By Laura Geggel published

Antarctica was warmer during the late Cretaceous period, a time when wildfire blazed through the region.

Filming creatures in their natural environment can yield valuable information on their interactions with other organisms.

Underwater views of Antarctic jellies are 'a magic portal to another world'

By Mindy Weisberger published

The short film "Life Beneath the Ice" features delicate, illuminated marine creatures living under the sea ice in Antarctica.

Antarctica's Twaites Glacier, climate change, ice melt

Antarctica's 'Doomsday Glacier' is fighting an invisible battle against the inner Earth, new study finds

By Brandon Specktor published

Researchers studied geothermal heat flow below West Antarctica, and found that the infamous Thwaites Glacier is being disproportionately cooked from below.

A group of six emperor penguins standing on the ice. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announce d a proposal to list the emperor penguin as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Melting sea ice could wipe out 98% of emperor penguins by the end of the century

By Harry Baker published

A new study has predicted that emperor penguins could become functionally extinct by the end of the century due to melting sea ice.

Changes in the ice surface of the Amery Ice Shelf in Antarctica reveal the rapid draining of a lake deep below in 2019.

NASA uncovers hidden system of mysteriously draining lakes under Antarctica

By Stephanie Pappas published

NASA scientists have mapped the dynamic, ever-shifting lakes beneath Antarctica in more detail than ever before.