ScienceBoom » Acrtic

Paul Nicklen: Tales of ice-bound wonderlands (TED Talks)

Michael Doig — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 18:20:30 +0000

Paul Nicklen: Tales of ice-bound wonderlands (TED Talks) – Diving under the Antarctic ice to get close to the much-feared leopard seal, photographer Paul Nicklen found an extraordinary new friend. Share his hilarious, passionate stories of the polar wonderlands.

Download your copy of "101 Science Misconceptions" provided by ScienceBoom.

Amazing Stripped Iceburg Photographs

Michael Doig — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:49:22 +0000

From Snopes:
These striking pictures of icebergs with multi-colored stripes or banding were taken by a Norwegian sailor named Oyvind Tangen while he was aboard a research ship about 1,700 miles south of Cape Town, South Africa.

As the London Times reported of the processes that created the striations displayed in these unusual candy-striped icebergs:

Keith Makinson, of the British Antarctic Survey, said that icebergs that seemed to show stripes were quite common in southern waters, but it was the first time that he

had seen brown stripes. They are believed to be created when ice crystals form under the water and, in a process described as “inverted snow”, rise to stick to the bottom of the ice shelf. As the ice crystals form a new layer at the bottom of the ice shelf, which later fragments to float away as icebergs, tiny particles of organic matter are trapped.

Parts of dead marine creatures such as krill form much of the trapped material and have the effect of creating coloured stripes, mainly blues and greens, in icebergs. Dr Makinson said that the brown stripes in this example were likely to have been formed from sediment washing underneath the ice shelf.

Photographs of similarly-patterned icebergs can be viewed at the web site of the Australian Antarctic Division.

Download your copy of "101 Science Misconceptions" provided by ScienceBoom.

First-Rate Resources For Teaching Polar Science

Michael Doig — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 22:45:17 +0000

For the last few years, there has been an increasing awareness about global warming. Movies like An Inconvenient Truth, The 11th Hour and Antarctica: The Global Warning have brought the public face to face with climate change and the polar regions of our planet. Only a privileged few have had the pleasure of visiting the poles, but that doesn’t make teaching about them any less important. The polar ice is beautiful, mysterious and vital to our existence on this planet. The following time-lapse movie shows the Arctic Ocean’s seasonal sea ice retreat in 2007.

Polar Resources

These are some of my favorite resources for information, images, and animations of polar activity.

Ben Saunders is currently preparing for SOUTH, the first return journey to the South Pole on foot. This 1,800-mile expedition will be the longest unsupported polar journey in history, and you can follow the build-up to the project in Ben’s weblog. His site has great links, photos, and stories about polar exploration.

Teachers Domain Polar Science Collection, newly launched page features collection of comparative glacier images adapted from the National Snow and Ice Data Center shows substantial changes in five Alaskan glacier positions over periods of 60 to 100 years. Also lesson plans and student activities on climate change.

The Cryosphere Today has loads of animations, images and historic data on the Polar Ice Caps. You can Peruse an archive of map displays of the atmospheric and radiative climatic conditions leading up to the record setting Northern Hemisphere sea ice minimum of 2007. The time-lapse animation above is from this site.

USATODAY.com, this great article features tons of links about the polar regions of our planet.

Edit: NOAA International Polar Year Site, with tons of useful information, links, and activities for polar education.