Two Huge Icebergs Let Loose Off Antarctica’s Coast : NPR.  The result 0f their collision is a new iceberg that’s approximately the size of Badlands National Park.

Bi-Polar Photographer Stuart Klipper sent me this NPR story about Ice Bridge, NASA’s new polar imaging project, with planes now taking the place of a dying satellite (Stuart would like to be taking photographs from the flight deck of those planes). Listen to NPR: NASA Launches Mission To Track Polar Ice By Plane (by Jon Hamilton)

The article was fascinating to me for another reason:  the scientist quoted in the story is the same Thomas P. Wagner who was such a terrific liaison for me while I was in Antarctica!  At that time, he was working for the National Science Foundation (Earth Sciences division) — but it seems he has since made the jump to NASA!  Wow.  There were NASA scientists sharing our lab at McMurdo that season, working on core-sampling equipment. Perhaps he was being recruited?  Great guy — wonderful to work with. Here’s a NASA video featuring Wagner:

“NASA climate scientist Tom Wagner provides a look at the state of Arctic sea ice in 2009 and discusses NASA’s role in monitoring the cryosphere.”

Wagner and I, along with the TAMDEF (TransAntarctic Mountains Deformation) researchers, flew down to reposition a GPS device on Deverall Island, the southern-most (icebound) island in Antarctica. Here is a panoramic photo taken by a researcher at Deverall, which includes one of their GPS units, if you scroll all the way to the right edge of the image. And here is are my own photos from that trip: The Scientific Method: Deverall Island

If you loved “March of the Penguins,” you’ve GOT to see this advertisement for a French media company.  Hysterical.  Movies are indeed made to be seen!  (I was lucky enough to see a screening of March of the Penguins while I was at McMurdo Station in Antarctica.)  Location, location, location.

Video: “March of the Emperors”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NhSQARojp0

In case you missed the New York Times (10-13-05) article “An Antarctica
Sighting in Central Park” by Randy Kennedy:

“Pierre Huyghe assigned himself an artistic mission that seemed specially
designed to fail (and also sounded like some kind of bizarre Jacques
Cousteau joke): rent a boat and take a monthlong journey deep into
Antarctica in search of the elusive albino penguin.”

A reprint of the story may be found here:

http://www.mezomorf.com/arts/news-6918.html

Ice : The Nature, the History, and the Uses of an Astonishing Substance, by
Mariana Gosnell. Read about it here at Amazon.

At least one reviewer didn’t seem to “get it” but the book sounds intriguing!

Neutrinos in the news! Read this physics article: Talk discusses catching mighty mass.

In related news, the ICE-Cube project (a neutrino-detection high-energy neutrino observatory being built and installed in the clear deep ice below the South Pole Station) will continue construction work this season! For more information, see http://icecube.wisc.edu/

“New investigations of the spreading of Earth’s crust in Antarctica may change existing estimates of tectonic plate motion around the Pacific Ocean Basin. ”

Note: I am looking forward to meeting members of a science team doing neotectonic research work in the Ross area — their ongoing project is Transantarctic Mountains Deformation Network: GPS Measurements of Neotectonic Motion in the Antarctic Interior: “GPS measurements of bedrock crustal motions in an extended TAMDEF network to document neotectonic displacements due to tectonic deformation within the West Antarctic rift and/or to mass change of the Antarctic ice sheets.” Is it just me, or is “isostatic uplift” the most amazing phenomenon?

Read the full article in Science Daily.

A new study, funded in part by the Naval Research Laboratory and NASA, reports that exhaust from the space shuttle can create high-altitude clouds over Antarctica mere days following launch, providing valuable insight to global transport processes in the lower thermosphere. The same study also finds that the shuttle’s main engine exhaust plume carries small quantities of iron that can be observed from the ground, half a world away.
- Courtesy: SpaceDaily (Washington DC Jul 07, 2005)

I am able to post messages to this journal by email.
K.