March 2002
A chunk of ice broke off the Antarctic ice shelf last month, collapsing into numerous icebergs. Studies have shown that the Antarctic Peninsula has been warming over the last half century, but the speed of this collapse surprised scientists. This story is taken from Reuters, as presented by Yahoo News:
More detailed scientific information about the collapse is available from the National Snow and Ice Data Center:
The resources and activities below present information on Antarctica as well as on issues related to climate change.
Related Web Sites
- Glacier: Invitation:
This Web site from Rice University is an excellent introduction to Antarctica,
with photographs and clear text. A good place to get oriented on Antarctic geography and the
vocabulary of ice.
- National Snow and Ice Data Center:
The NSIDC is part of the University of Colorado and is affiliated with
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstration. This Web site provides information
and insight into current research in the fields of snow and ice. Specific pages provide
information about ice shelves and
ice bergs.
- British Antarctic Survey:
This Web site also has news and information about research in Antarctica, including
information about
the Antarctic
ice sheet and rising sea levels. They have
annotated a satellite
image to show the change in the ice sheet from 1995 to the present.
- Antarctica:
Scientific Journeys from McMurdo to the Pole:
The Exploratorium sent a team to Antarctica in November and put together an excellent
site, complete with archived Web casts.
As with other Exploratorium Web sites, this makes extensive use of sound and imagery
to engage the visitor. Don't miss the
Ice Gallery and
Gondwanaland,
which require Flash plugins.
Web sites from the Discovery Channel (The Chilling Fields) and Nova (Warnings from the Ice) cover similar material. The Discovery Channel site has a nice animation of the changes in the ice sheet over time and the Nova site has an ice core timeline.
Related Classroom Activities
- Wired Antarctica:
This Web site from the University of Washington has a number of
lessons related to Antarctica and global change.
- Cycles of the Earth and Atmosphere: This curriculum module from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) is focused at middle-school science teachers and is divided into several sections, including Introduction to Climate and Global climate change. Every section has related activities, such as Differences between climate and weather.
News Archive
- Earth Science News Archive: We are building an archive of these news features. Feel free to browse earlier articles and resources!