Landscape beneath Antarctica's icy surface revealed in unprecedented detail. “[This study gives] us a better picture of what's going to happen in the future and how quickly ice in Antarctica will contribute to global sea-level rise,” agreed Fretwell.

 

Until now, a lot of what lay beneath Antarctica's icy surface had remained a mystery

by  

Mark Poynting,Climate researcherand

Erwan Rivault,Senior data designer

 

A new map has unmasked the landscape beneath Antarctica's ice in unprecedented detail, something scientists say could greatly enhance our understanding of the frozen white continent.

Researchers used satellite data and the physics of how Antarctica's glaciers move to work out what the continent might look like beneath the ice.

They found evidence of thousands of previously undiscovered hills and ridges, and say their maps of some of Antarctica's hidden mountain ranges are clearer than ever before.

While the maps are subject to uncertainties, the researchers believe the new details could shed light on how Antarctica will respond to climate change - and what that means for sea-level rise.

 

"It's like before you had a grainy pixel film camera, and now you've got a properly zoomed-in digital image of what's really going on," lead author Dr Helen Ockenden, a researcher at the University of Grenoble-Alpes, told BBC News.

Thanks to satellites, scientists have a good understanding of Antarctica's icy surface – but what lies beneath has remained more of a mystery.

In fact, more is known about the surface of some planets in our Solar System than much of Antarctica's "underbelly" – the topography beneath the ice sheet.

But researchers now have what they believe to be the most complete, detailed map of that underbelly ever made.

"I'm just so excited to look at that and just see the whole bed of Antarctica at once," said Prof Robert Bingham, a glaciologist at the University of Edinburgh who co-authored the study. "I think that's amazing."

 

Traditional measurements from the ground or air have used radar to "see" beneath the ice - which is up to three miles (4.8km) thick in places - often along individual survey lines or tracks.

But these tracks could be tens of kilometres apart - leaving scientists to fill in the gaps.

“If you imagined the Scottish Highlands or the European Alps were covered by ice and the only way to understand their shape was the occasional flight several kilometres apart, there's no way that you would see all these sharp mountains and valleys that we know to be there,” said Bingham.

So the researchers used a new approach, combining their knowledge of the ice surface from satellites and their understanding of how the ice moves from physics - and checking them against those previous tracks.

“It’s a little bit like if you're kayaking in a river, and there's rocks underneath the water, sometimes there's eddies in the surface, which can tell you about the rocks under the water,” explained Ockenden.

“And ice obviously flows very differently to water, but still, when the ice is flowing over a ridge or a hill in the bedrock […] that manifests in the topography of the surface, but also in the velocity as well.”

While we knew about Antarctica's major mountain ranges, the scientists' new approach has revealed tens of thousands of previously undiscovered hills and ridges, as well as greater details around some of those mountains and canyons buried under the ice.

"I think it's just really super interesting to look at all these new landscapes and see what's there," said Ockenden.

"It's like when you see a map of topography on Mars for the first time, and you're like, 'whoa, this is so interesting, this looks a bit like Scotland,' or 'this looks like nothing I've ever seen before'."

One intriguing discovery is a deep channel incised in Antarctica's bed in an area called the Maud Subglacial Basin.

The channel is on average 50m deep, 6km wide and runs for nearly 400km (about 250 miles) - roughly the distance from London to Newcastle as the crow flies.

 

The researchers’ new map is unlikely to be the final one. It relies on assumptions about exactly how ice flows which, like any method, comes with uncertainties.

And much remains to be discovered about the rocks and sediments that lie beneath the ice.

But other researchers agree that, combined with further surveys from the ground, air and space, the maps are a valuable step forward.

"This is a really useful product," said Dr Peter Fretwell, senior scientist at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, who was not involved in the new study but has been extensively involved in previous mapping.

"It gives us an opportunity to fill in the gaps between those surveys," he added.

A more detailed understanding of all of the ridges, hills, mountains and channels could improve computer models of how Antarctica might change in future, the researchers say.

That is because these landforms and features ultimately shape how fast the glaciers above move, and how quickly they can retreat in a warming climate.

And that is important because the future speed of melting in Antarctica is widely considered to be one of the biggest unknowns in climate science.

“[This study gives] us a better picture of what's going to happen in the future and how quickly ice in Antarctica will contribute to global sea-level rise,” agreed Fretwell.

The study is published in the academic journal, Science.

Face to Face With the Thwaites Glacier. Less than a day after arriving at the ice, we are already up close and personal with the fastest-melting glacier in Antarctica.

The sun came out to greet the icebreaker Araon’s arrival at the site of scientific interest at the Thwaites Glacier on Thursday.CreditCredit...Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

 

 By Raymond Zhong

Reporting from the icebreaker Araon in the Amundsen Sea

  

Yesterday, we arrived at the Thwaites Glacier. This morning, we are surrounded by it.

The end of the glacier that sits on the ocean is formed of two long tongues of ice, with a narrow channel of water between them.

We sailed down this channel overnight and, by breakfast, made it to the end. Now we are enveloped on three sides in Thwaites’s icy embrace.

Sources: MarineTraffic; U.S. National Ice Center. By Mira Rojanasakul and William B. Davis/The New York Times
 

 The Araon’s captain, Kim Gwang-heon, was nervous about sailing here. Satellite imagery showed the passage strewed with sea ice. Once the ship started down the channel, the winds could have blown the ice in our direction, blocking our way back out. But Won Sang Lee, the expedition’s chief scientist, was determined to try.

 The end of the channel is as close as the ship can get to the spot on Thwaites where the scientists hope to drill through the ice later this month. Anchoring nearby would let the researchers fly their gear to the site with the fewest trips by helicopter between the ship and the glacier. That will help their complex, monthlong operation start as soon as possible. And so, thanks to Captain Kim’s expert sailing, we find ourselves close enough to the glacier’s immense face to have a staring contest.

 

The sun is warm. The sea is calm. Even the penguins are having a good morning. Small groups of them leaped and romped in the waters around the ship.

As far as Dr. Lee can tell, we might be the first humans to reach these waters. The seabed is unmapped by modern sonar, suggesting no other ship has sailed here. “The past four years it’s been almost covered by sea ice,” Dr. Lee said.

The lack of ice is a great help to research trips like this one, but it is also a sign of how quickly the Antarctic climate is shifting. The annual maximum sea ice cover around the continent has plumbed new lows in recent years.

 “It’s really changing rapidly, this region,” Dr. Lee said. “It’s really good for science, but not good for human beings.”

Surrounded by Thwaites ice. Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

 

 Raymond Zhong reports on climate and environmental issues for The Times.

Estudo aponta avanço da vegetação e do degelo na Antártica; cientista alerta para efeitos no Brasil. O Dia da Antártica é celebrado nesta segunda-feira (1º).

Área considerada livre de gelo na Antártica — Foto: MapBiomas-Antártica

Por Kellen Barreto

Pesquisa do MapBiomas diz que 107 mil hectares do continente estão sem gelo. Situação pode afetar agricultura na América do Sul. Dia da Antártica é celebrado nesta segunda.

Um estudo inédito do MapBiomas revela que 107 mil hectares da Antártica estão atualmente sem gelo, o equivalente a 1% do continente com presença de vegetação.

🧊O número pode parecer pequeno, mas é significativo em um continente, o mais isolado do planeta Terra, que historicamente permanece congelado.

O fenômeno tem intrigado pesquisadores. A Antártica – conhecida pelo gelo predominante em quase toda sua paisagem – está ficando mais verde.

🌿Musgos, liquens e algas estão ocupando áreas que antes permaneciam congeladas. E, segundo cientistas, isso é mais um sinal de que as mudanças climáticas estão avançando rapidamente.

🗺️O levantamento analisou imagens de satélite entre 2017 e 2025 e é o primeiro a detalhar, em escala continental, como essas áreas estão mudando. 

 

Para identificar zonas sem gelo e mapear a vegetação, além de dados de satélite Sentinel-2, a equipe utilizou algoritmos e um índice que detecta atividade de fotossíntese.

🔎O Dia da Antártica é celebrado nesta segunda-feira (1º), data em que é comemorado o 66º aniversário da assinatura do Tratado da Antártica.

Aquecimento global e o avanço da vegetação

Presença de vegetação no continente antártico tem avançado e preocupa especialistas — Foto: MapBioma-Antártica 

 

Segundo a cientista Eliana Fonseca, coordenadora do estudo, a expansão da vegetação está diretamente ligada ao aquecimento global.

“As temperaturas mais elevadas fazem com que o gelo e a neve derretam mais rapidamente, deixando maior disponibilidade de água líquida já no início do verão”, disse.

"Com o solo exposto por mais tempo, a vegetação se expande para áreas onde antes não conseguia se estabelecer", acrescentou Eliana.

Segundo a pesquisadora, embora este seja o primeiro mapeamento abrangente, estudos regionais já apontavam um “esverdeamento” na área, especialmente nas ilhas mais próximas à Península Antártica.

“Nas ilhas Shetland do Sul, estamos vendo mudanças rápidas e intensas por causa do aumento das temperaturas”, declarou Eliana. "Regiões que recebiam precipitação de neve agora registram cada vez mais chuva líquida", emendou a especialista.

A pesquisadora alerta que esse processo nas ilhas da Antártica deve se intensificar nos próximos anos, apesar do continente ser grande e homogêneo. Algo que já ocorre na Groenlândia, no hemisfério norte.

A vegetação nessas localidades inóspitas, com número mínimo de espécies de plantas, funciona como um termômetro ambiental, segundo a especialista.

"Quando vemos a vegetação aumentar, significa que as condições ambientais estão mudando – e rápido", afirmou Eliana.

Efeitos já são sentidos no hemisfério sul

As transformações da Antártica não ficam restritas ao continente. O lugar é um "regulador climático global" e impacta principalmente o hemisfério sul.

“As diferenças de temperatura entre a Antártica e as regiões próximas movem energia da Linha do Equador para os polos. Esses fluxos geram as frentes frias que regulam temperaturas e padrões de chuva em boa parte do hemisfério sul", afirmou Eliana Fonsca.

 

Segundo a pesquisadora, isso se reflete na frequência menor de frentes frias no Brasil e na América do Sul, o que afeta os regimes de chuva e a agricultura.

O derretimento do gelo marinho e as águas menos frias no Oceano Austral também influenciam a cadeia alimentar da região. A base da alimentação de baleias, por exemplo, depende de água fria e da presença de gelo.

“Já temos relatos da diminuição da produção de krill [um crustáceo consumido por baleias]”, alerta a pesquisadora do MapBiomas.

Por que mapear a Antártica é tão difícil?

Aquecimento global tem relação com degelo na Antártica, segundo pesquisadora — Foto: MapBiomas-Antártica

 

A Antártica ainda é um desafio à capacidade dos satélites. O fenômeno do sol da meia-noite – quando o sol permanece visível por 24 horas no verão – cria sombras longas que dificultam a análise das imagens.

Por décadas, muitos mapas eram feitos manualmente, com pesquisadores, literalmente, desenhando onde a vegetação aparecia.

O novo levantamento do MapBiomas só foi possível graças a técnicas mais precisas de georreferenciamento e o avanço da computação em nuvem.

Continente dedicado à ciência

Com 1,366 bilhão de hectares, o continente antártico é regido pelo Tratado da Antártica, assinado em 1959, do qual fazem parte 58 países.

O acordo estabelece o continente e o Oceano Austral como uma área voltada à ciência, à cooperação internacional e à preservação ambiental.

Sea level rise will cause ‘catastrophic inland migration’, scientists warn. Rising oceans will force millions away from coasts even if global temperature rise remains below 1.5C, analysis finds

 

The loss of ice from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets has quadrupled since the 1990s. Photograph: Bernhard Staehli/Shutterstock

Damian Carrington 

Sea level rise will become unmanageable at just 1.5C of global heating and lead to “catastrophic inland migration”, the scientists behind a new study have warned. This scenario may unfold even if the average level of heating over the last decade of 1.2C continues into the future.

The loss of ice from the giant Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets has quadrupled since the 1990s due to the climate crisis and is now the principal driver of sea level rise.

The international target to keep global temperature rise below 1.5C is already almost out of reach. But the new analysis found that even if fossil fuel emissions were rapidly slashed to meet it, sea levels would be rising by 1cm a year by the end of the century, faster than the speed at which nations could build coastal defences.

The world is on track for 2.5C-2.9C of global heating, which would almost certainly be beyond tipping points for the collapse of the Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheets. The melting of those ice sheets would lead to a “really dire” 12 metres of sea level rise.

Today, about 230 million people live within 1 metre above current sea level, and 1 billion live within 10 metres above sea level. Even just 20cm of sea level rise by 2050 would lead to global flood damages of at least $1tn a year for the world’s 136 largest coastal cities and huge impacts on people’s lives and livelihoods.

However, the scientists emphasised that every fraction of a degree of global heating avoided by climate action still matters, because it slows sea level rise and gives more time to prepare, reducing human suffering.

 

Sea level rise is the biggest long-term impact of the climate crisis, and research in recent years has shown it is occurring far faster than previously estimated. The 1.5C limit was seen as a way to avoid the worst consequences of global heating, but the new research shows this is not the case for sea level rise.

The researchers said the “safe limit” temperature for ice sheets was hard to estimate but was likely to be 1C or lower. Sea level rise of at least 1-2 metres was now inevitable, the scientists said. In the UK, just 1 metre of sea level rise would see large parts of the Fens and Humberside below sea level.

“What we mean by safe limit is one which allows some level of adaptation, rather than catastrophic inland migration and forced migration, and the safe limit is roughly 1cm a year of sea level rise,” said Prof Jonathan Bamber of the University of Bristol in the UK. “If you get to that, then it becomes extremely challenging for any kind of adaptation, and you’re going to see massive land migration on scales that we’ve never witnessed in modern civilisation.” Developing countries such as Bangladesh would fare far worse than rich ones with experience of holding back the waves, such as the Netherlands, he said.

Durham University’s Prof Chris Stokes, lead author of the study, said: “We’re starting to see some of the worst-case scenarios play out almost in front of us. At current warming of 1.2C, sea level rise is accelerating at rates that, if they continue, would become almost unmanageable before the end of this century, [which is] within the lifetime of our young people.”

The average global temperature hit 1.5C for the first time in 2024. But the international target is measured as the average over 20 years, so is not considered to have been broken yet.

 

The new study, published in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, combined data from studies of warm periods up to 3m years ago; observations of ice melting and sea level rise in recent decades; and climate models. It concluded: “Continued mass loss from ice sheets poses an existential threat to the world’s coastal populations.”

Prof Andrea Dutton of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was part of the study team, said: “Evidence recovered from past warm periods suggests that several metres of sea level rise – or more – can be expected when global mean temperature reaches 1.5C or higher.”

At the end of the last ice age, about 15,000 years ago, sea level was rising at 10 times the rate today, driven by self-reinforcing feedbacks that may have been triggered by only a small increase in temperature. The last time CO₂ levels in the atmosphere were as high as today, about 3m years ago, sea level rise was 10-20 metres higher.

Even if humanity can bring the planet back to its preindustrial temperature by removing CO₂ from the atmosphere, it will still take hundreds to thousands of years for the ice sheets to recover, the researchers said. That means land lost to sea level rise will remain lost for a long time, perhaps until the Earth enters the next ice age.

Belize moved its capital inland in 1970 after a devastating hurricane, but its largest city is still on the coast and will be inundated with only 1 metre of sea level rise, Carlos Fuller, Belize’s longtime climate negotiator, said: “Findings such as these only sharpen the need to remain within the 1.5C Paris agreement limit, or as close as possible, so we can return to lower temperatures and protect our coastal cities.”

 

Global Sea Ice Hits a New Low. The data comes after researchers reported that the past 10 years have been the 10 hottest on record.

 

Ice floes off Nuuk, Greenland, this month.Credit...Odd Andersen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

 

 

By Austyn Gaffney

 

Earth is missing a lot of sea ice this year. Enough to cover the entire United States east of the Mississippi.

That was announced by researchers at NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center on Thursday, who said the amount of sea ice on the planet had reached the lowest level ever recorded in March.

The record comes days after the World Meteorological Organization reported that the past 10 years have been the 10 hottest on record, with 2024 the hottest year. The global rise in temperatures is tied to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases, largely caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

“Warming temperatures drive melting ice across the globe, and because we’re seeing such high temperatures, it’s not surprising that this year we’re seeing the least amount of ice coverage,” said Linette Boisvert, an ice scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

 

The center has been compiling data for almost 50 years, primarily through a Department of Defense satellite program. The global sea ice extent includes measurements taken in both the Southern Hemisphere and the Northern Hemisphere, which experience opposite seasons.

Dr. Boisvert compared the freezing and melting of sea ice between winter and summer to the heartbeat of the planet. The pulses between the winter maximum and summer minimum used to be shorter. But with more sea ice melting away, the distance between pulses has grown larger.

“It’s like the heartbeat of the planet is slowing down,” Dr. Boisvert said. “It’s not good.”

 

Sea ice plays many important roles for the global climate: Its white surface can reflect energy back into space, helping the planet cool. It also acts like a blanket for the ocean, insulating it and preventing ocean heat from reaching the atmosphere. Less sea ice means more heat goes in Earth’s systems, warming the atmosphere and the oceans.

The extent of sea ice isn’t the only measurement scientists are tracking. The thickness of the ice also matters and, since the 1980s, Arctic sea ice has become thinner.

 

While thicker sea ice tends to survive the summer melt, nowadays most of the sea ice completely melts during the summer, preventing it from thickening year after year. More open ocean means more dark surfaces to absorb more heat from the sun, which in turn melts more ice. The melting becomes its own positive feedback loop.

Changes in remote polar regions affect the rest of the globe, including changes to ocean currents and weather patterns.

“It’s really important to have scientists’ eyes on the data,” Dr. Boisvert said. “It would be really detrimental not to have funding for this type of work.”

Melting sea ice also has negative implications for marine life, tourism in polar regions and global shipping. It’s important for military activities, Indigenous communities in Alaska and the fishing industry, according to Walt Meier, a senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, a research organization at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The trend of decreasing sea ice in the Arctic is an increasingly clear indicator of global warming, he said.

“We’re seeing something that’s pretty unprecedented, at least on scales of human society for thousands of years,” Dr. Meier said.

 

Under the Trump administration, scientific agencies monitoring weather and climate data have been under threat. In March, NASA fired its chief scientist and eliminated more than a dozen other senior positions. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which collects global climate data, fired hundreds of probationary employees in February and officials said officials they had plans to shrink its work force by nearly 20 percent. Projects focused on polar regions lost managers who oversee research when the National Science Foundation laid off about a tenth of its work force.

When asked about the cuts, Dr. Meier noted that groups in Europe and Japan also monitor global sea ice.

“It’s not like there’s not going to be any knowledge of what’s going on in the Arctic, regardless of what happens in the U.S.,” he said

“But I, and I think all of us here at N.S.I.D.C., are focused on the data and our research and doing our best to serve the public by keeping people informed on what’s happening in the polar regions.”

 

'The ice melted beneath our feet': The huskies that revealed the rapid shrinking of Greenland's ice

 

Isabelle Gerretsen

 

In 2019, climate scientist Steffen Olsen took a startling photo of huskies appearing to walk on water. The photo quickly went viral as it revealed the reality of Greenland's rapidly melting ice.

In June 2019, a striking image of husky dogs apparently walking on water in Greenland stunned the world and quickly went viral.

The photo was taken by Steffen Olsen, a climate scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute and lead of Blue Action, a European project which investigates the effect of a changing Arctic on weather and climate.

"The reaction surprised me," says Olsen. "It surprised me that so many people saw this as a beautiful photo. I saw it as a scary situation."

That's because the dogs were in fact wading through ankle-deep meltwater on top of sea ice in Inglefield Bredning, an 80km-long (49.7 miles) system in northwestern Greenland.

 

"I learned to see the photo as an illusion. People don't see sea ice, but dogs walking on water," Olsen says. 

Olsen captured the photo while travelling with a team of scientists who were monitoring sea and ice conditions near the town of Qaanaaq, one of the world's most northerly towns. They were retrieving scientific instruments they had deployed during the winter. 

"We had been travelling for some hours and it became clear that the melting was very extreme… [the ice] more or less melted beneath our feet while we were travelling on it," says Olsen. "The local hunters and I were very surprised… we were searching for dry spots to get the dogs and the sleds out of the water and there were none in sight. We turned around and made it back to the coast."

It surprised me that so many people saw this as a beautiful photo. I saw it as a scary situation

The dogs are typically very hesitant to get their paws wet, says Olsen. "Usually when we meet water, it's because there are cracks in the sea ice and the dogs have to jump over the water…they hate it. But it was actually very warm so I think they were happy to have cold feet," he says, adding that temperatures reached 14C (57F) on the day.

 The scientists managed to retrieve their instruments a few days later once the water had drained away through small cracks in the ice sheet. "Then you have a short period of time when you can then travel again before the ice collapses and breaks up," says Olsen.

On average, Greenland loses 234 billion tonnes of ice per year (Credit: Alamy)

 

Olsen says he was extremely surprised by the rapid melting he witnessed when he took the photo on 13 June 2019. He has only experienced such an extreme event once during his 15 years carrying out research in Greenland. It's unusual for melting to occur that quickly, Olsen explains.

"It requires a sudden onset of warm air while you still have fresh snow on the ice and solid sea ice. So it's an example of an extreme event developing early in the season... The local community have told me: 'you will have to wait 100 years to see [such an event] again'." 

Melting events such as the one Olsen witnessed would normally not occur until later in the season, in late June and July, but in 2019 melting started in mid-April, around six to eight weeks before the 1981-2020 average, and affected roughly 95% of Greenland's ice sheet, according to the US' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

 

Such early melting events can have a "snowball effect" and lead to more melting as there is less snow and ice to reflect the Sun's rays back into space and keep the surface cool, explains Bianca Perren, a paleoclimatologist at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), who studies sediment cores from polar regions to understand the long-term variability of the climate. 

More like this:

• Antarctica's upside-down ice-scape we had no idea existed

• The 'mind bomb' photos that changed the whaling industry

• Why polar bears are no longer the poster image of climate change

Greenland experienced record ice loss in 2019, shedding a total of 532 billion tonnes from its giant ice sheet, according to a 2020 study. On average, Greenland loses 234 billion tonnes of ice per year – enough to pack into 6,324 Empire State Buildings.

"2019 was a really unusually warm year, but so was 2012," says Kelly Hogan, a marine geophysicist at BAS who studies the impacts of Greenland's melting ice sheet. In 2012, the summer period (June-August) was more than 2C (4F) warmer than the average for 1981-2010, and more than 1.5C (3F) warmer for the entire ice sheet. "Those extremes are coming round more frequently than we had thought they would. They're happening every few years," says Hogan.

"What's really distinctive about Greenland is how much melting you get on the surface in the summer, because you don't get anywhere near as much as that in Antarctica," says Hogan. "When you see huge volumes of water [on the ice], it is really shocking."

 But it's rare to see "giant pools of water" on the surface like in Olsen's photo, says Perren, as usually the water seeps through cracks in the ice. "It basically pops the ice sheet up and floats it out to the coast. So often you don't have this pooling of water, but instead you have warm water that's being sent down into the bowels of the Greenland ice sheet, basically warming the whole thing," she says.

Greenland's melting ice sheet is threatening local community's way of life (Credit: Getty Images)

The rapid melting of the ice is already affecting local communities' way of life. "They are having to adapt the way they hunt and fish," says Olsen.

If the ice is unsafe to travel on, it also makes it more difficult for scientists to carry out their research, Olsen adds. "We will have to adapt and rely more on automatic instruments instead of community-based monitoring." 

Safety is already a concern, says Perren, adding: "I have promised my son that I will not step foot on the ice sheet because it's so dangerous."

 

It looks like the dogs are skating on something without a bottom… it feels like they could just sink at any moment – Kelly Hogan

The photo has helped raise awareness of Greenland's vulnerability to climate change, says Olsen. "I have definitely found that you can get a lot of attention for the problem with a photo… so it has been very efficient.

"But I've also been challenged by people saying: 'how can you take a photo of climate change?' And I agree, you cannot take one photo and call it climate change, because that is something that unfolds over a longer time period," says Olsen. "We need to explain the photo and provide the right context."

Photos are useful tools for starting conversation about the environment and explaining scientific phenomena, says Perren. "Science has a communication problem," she says.

"When I first saw it in 2019 I remember thinking: 'oh my gosh, this is such a shocking image,'" adds Perren. "It's a symbolic image of what climate change looks like in Greenland. But there's also a scientific side to it: maybe this is unprecedented but it also [paints] a very good, kind of emblematic picture of what the future would look like."

Hogan says that photo "really drives home the extent of the problem". "It looks like the dogs are skating on something without a bottom… it feels like they could just sink at any moment, which is maybe some sort of metaphor for the ice sheet and the future."

 

Argentina flooding: 16 killed as two girls swept away by rising waters. Authorities warn more fatalities expected as a year’s worth of rain falls on Bahía Blanca in eight hours

Firefighters and volunteers help people out of flooded areas in Bahía Blanca, Argentina, on 8 March 2025. Photograph: Pablo Presti/EPA

 

Harriet Barber in Buenos Aires

 

 

Rescue teams in Argentina are searching for two girls, aged one and five, who were swept away by severe floods that ripped through Buenos Aires province, killing at least 16 people.

A year’s worth of rain fell on the city of Bahía Blanca and the town of Cerri on Friday, rapidly inundating neighbourhoods and destroying homes, bridges and roads. The rainfall – 400mm (15.7in) recorded in just eight hours – was more than twice the city’s previous record of 175mm (6.8in) set in 1930.

The sisters, Delfina and Pilar Hecker, were travelling with their parents when their car became trapped in the rising waters. According to reports, a truck driver, named as Rubén Zalazar, attempted to rescue the children before they were swept away. The body of 43-year-0ld Zalazar was found in a lagoon on Sunday.

 

At least 16 people have been declared dead by officials, with authorities saying there are “likely to be more”. In the latest press conference, Carlos Bianco, a minister in the Buenos Aires province, said at least 100 people were missing.

Authorities also said more than 1,000 people were evacuated over the weekend, while estimates suggest hundreds have been made homeless. Videos posted online showed neonatal nurses wading through knee-deep flood waters to rescue newborn babies.

“We looked at the street and saw a river. We saw cars, trucks, containers, everything floating by. You could hear store windows breaking, and see furniture being dragged by the current,” said Soledad Bengochea, 52, a resident. “In one car, we saw two people trapped. It was overwhelming and terrible. There are many people who have suffered.”

The national security minister, Patricia Bullrich, said the area had been “destroyed”, while Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, declared three days of national mourning.

But the government has also come under fire after it emerged the national emergency directorate – which provides disaster relief – was shuttered three days before the storm, with 485 employees dismissed or placed on leave. The decision comes as Milei’s administration conducts widespread cuts to state spending

The mayor, Federico Susbielles, said that the floods had caused millions in infrastructure damage. Agostina Bitti, a 34-year-old doctor, said there are “still houses under water”. “The entire city needs to be rebuilt,” she said.

Argentina’s economy ministry has pledged AR$10bn (US$9.2m at the official exchange rate) to help repair the damage and rebuild the city.

The Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi offered his condolences to the victims’ families, saying he wished them strength. Pope Francis, who has been hospitalised in Rome since 14 February, also sent a message to the victims. The Vatican press office said that the pontiff, who is also from Argentina, is holding those affected in his “thoughts and prayers”.

Extreme rainfall has become more common and more intense due to human-caused climate breakdown across most of the world, because warmer air can hold more water vapour.

 

World’s biggest iceberg runs aground after long journey from Antarctica

 

The A23a iceberg, on 25 November, 2024, off the coast of Antarctica. Photograph: Cpl Tom Cann RAF/AP

 Scientists are studying whether the grounded A23a iceberg might help stir nutrients and make food more available for penguins and seals

 

The world’s biggest iceberg appears to have run aground roughly 70km (43 miles) from a remote Antarctic island, potentially sparing the crucial wildlife haven from being hit, a research organisation said Tuesday.

The colossal iceberg A23a – which measures roughly 3,300 sq km and weighs nearly 1tn tonnes – has been drifting north from Antarctica towards South Georgia island since 2020.

This had raised fears it could collide with the island or run aground in shallower water near it, potentially disrupting the ability of penguins and seals to feed their young.

It remains unclear whether the iceberg is stuck for good. “It will be interesting to see what will happen now,” said Andrew Meijers, an oceanographer with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

The A23A iceberg as it approached South Georgia island in the Weddell Sea on 24 February 2025. Photograph: COPERNICUS SENTINEL DATA 2025/AFP/Getty Images

 

 

The gigantic wall of ice has been stuck 73km from the island since 1 March, according to a statement from the BAS. “If the iceberg stays grounded, we don’t expect it to significantly affect the local wildlife,” Meijers said.

 

“In the last few decades, the many icebergs that end up taking this route through the Southern Ocean soon break up, disperse and melt,” added Meijers, who encountered A23a in late 2023 and has tracked its fate via satellite ever since.

The world’s biggest and oldest iceberg calved from the Antarctic shelf in 1986.

 

It remained stuck for more than 30 years before finally breaking free in 2020, its lumbering journey north sometimes delayed by ocean forces that kept it spinning in place.

Satellite imagery had previously suggested it was not crumbling into smaller chunks along the familiar path that such icebergs take. However, a 19km-long chunk broke off in January.

There had been concerns for wildlife on the crucial breeding ground of South Georgia if the iceberg came too close. This would have forced animals such as penguins and seals to travel much farther to get around the colossal block of ice.

“This could reduce the amount of food coming back to pups and chicks on the island, and so increase mortality,” Meijers said.

However in its current location, the iceberg could offer benefits to wildlife.

“Nutrients stirred up by the grounding [of the iceberg] and from its melt may boost food availability for the whole regional ecosystem, including for charismatic penguins and seals, Meijers said.

Along with the nearby South Sandwich islands, South Georgia is home to around 5m seals and 65m breeding birds from 30 different species.

The island’s seals and penguins have already had a “bad season” due to a bird flu outbreak, Meijers told AFP in January.

The iceberg poses no threat to shipping. It is so huge that vessels can easily avoid it.

 

However, as it breaks up into smaller pieces, certain areas could become off limits to commercial fishing ships “due to the number of smaller – yet often more dangerous – bergy bits”, Meijers said.

There is no permanent human population on South Georgia, which the UK administers as a British overseas territory.

Argentina also claims the island – along with the Falklands to the west which it calls Las Malvinas.

Icebergs of this size are rare but not unheard of. There have been two of similar sizes in the same area over the last five years, Meijers said.

Such huge icebergs are a “completely normal part of the lifecycle” of the Antarctic ice sheets, Meijers said.

But ice shelves have lost 6,000bn tonnes of mass since 2000, which is matched by accelerating ice loss attributed to climate change, he added.

Researchers warned last month that a rise in the planet’s average temperature to between 1.5 and 2.0 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels could melt enough frozen water to lift oceans by a dozen metres – and beyond the point of no return.

Last year – which smashed previous heat records as the world was battered by fires, floods and storms – was the first calendar year above 1.5C.

Global sea ice hit ‘all-time minimum’ in February, scientists say. Scientists called the news ‘particularly worrying’ because ice reflects sunlight and cools the planet

February was the lowest monthly level for sea ice in the Arctic, and the fourth-lowest in the Antarctic. Photograph: Bernhard Staehli/Shutterstock
 

Ajit Niranjan Europe environment correspondent

 

 

Global sea ice fell to a record low in February, scientists have said, a symptom of an atmosphere fouled by planet-heating pollutants.

The combined area of ice around the north and south poles hit a new daily minimum in early February and stayed below the previous record for the rest of the month, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Thursday.

“One of the consequences of a warmer world is melting sea ice,” said the C3S deputy director, Samantha Burgess. “The record or near-record low sea ice cover at both poles has pushed global sea ice cover to an all-time minimum.”

The agency found the area of sea ice hit its lowest monthly level for February in the Arctic, at 8% below average, and its fourth-lowest monthly level for February in the Antarctic, at 26% below average. Its satellite observations stretch back to the late 1970s and its historical observations to the middle of the 20th century.

Scientists had already observed an extreme heat anomaly in the north pole at the start of February, which caused temperatures to soar more than 20C above average and cross the threshold for ice to melt. They described the latest broken record as “particularly worrying” because ice reflects sunlight and cools the planet.

“The lack of sea ice means darker ocean surfaces and the ability of the Earth to absorb more sunlight, which accelerates the warming,” said Mika Rantanen, a climate scientist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

The strong winter warming event in the Arctic in early February had prevented sea ice from growing normally, he added. “I believe that this meteorological event, combined with the long-term decline of sea ice due to anthropogenic climate change, was the primary cause of the lowest Arctic sea ice extent on record.”

Global sea ice extent varies throughout the year but typically reaches its annual minimum in February, when it is summer in the southern hemisphere

C3S said February 2025 was the third hottest February it had seen. Global temperatures were 1.59C hotter than preindustrial levels, making it the 19th month in the past 20 that was more than 1.5C above preindustrial levels.

Earth observation programmes such as C3S rely on the reanalysis of billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations to create snapshots of the state of the climate. The agency cautioned that the margins above 1.5C were small in several months, and could differ slightly in other datasets.

 

The broken sea ice record comes after last year was confirmed as the hottest year on record and a Guardian analysis of C3S data revealed that two-thirds of the world’s surface was seared by record-breaking monthly heat in 2024. The El Niño weather pattern in the first half of the year added to the background heating effect of fossil fuel pollution, which traps sunlight.

El Niño has since subsided and morphed into a weak form of its cooler counterpart, La Niña. The World Meteorological Organization said on Thursday they expected the La Niña that emerged in December to be short-lived.

Richard Allan, a climate scientist at the University of Reading, said the long-term prognosis for Arctic sea ice was grim.

“The region continues to rapidly heat up, and can only be saved with rapid and massive cuts to greenhouse gas emissions,” he said. “That will also limit the growing severity of weather extremes and long-term sea level rise across the world.”