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Keith Makinson

@keithmakinson.bsky.social

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Keith Makinson @keithmakinson.bsky.social · Nov 26

This is oceanography the hard way.
Before any instruments or samplers are deployed, we hot water drill an access hole through several hundred metres of ice shelf. Don't dilly-dally though, freezing closes the hole in a day or two.

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British Antarctic Survey 🐧 @bas.ac.uk · Aug 20

We've never seen anyone so enthusiastic to crush ice – but a team of scientists are studying the cracking of ice, and they’re pretty hyped! ❄️

@newscientist.com spoke to members of the RIFT-TIP project, who are investigating how ice shelf fractures grow.

Watch the video here: tinyurl.com/526tn8zz

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British Antarctic Survey 🐧 @bas.ac.uk · Jul 18

We've had a Very Important Ice delivery!

These precious ancient ice core samples from Antarctica are expected to reveal a climate record stretching back more than 1.5 million years 🤯

That's further than we've ever looked back before.

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Liz stands in a walk-in scientific freezer, wearing a warm jacket. She's holding a long ice sample - a narrow stick of ice about a metre long and only a few centimetres wide. It's from a box containing many ice cores. Photo credit: Jamie Oliver, BAS.

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Environmental Audit Committee @commonseac.parliament.uk · Jun 9

"It is impossible to overstate how critical this region is to our shared future." - @tobyperkinsmp.bsky.social, Chair

Read our report on the UK and the Antarctic environment: publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cm...

Image of an Antarctic iceberg with white text on a green background reading: We've published a report on the uk and the Antarctic environment

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Rob Larter @polarrobs.bsky.social · May 2

This is almost unbelievable. It's now May and there is still virtually no new sea ice forming in the Bellingshausen Sea (lower left region in image).
Image showing sea ice concentration derived from AMSR satellite data is by Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Germany.

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Leconte @manchotempereur.bsky.social · Apr 25

The Penguin Book of penguins - An Expert's Guide to the World's Most Beloved Bird
by Peter Fretwell and Lisa Fretwell
www.penguin.co.uk/books/464310...

@ptfretwell.bsky.social
@bas.ac.uk
#PenguinBooks #VikingBooksUK

The Penguin Book of Penguins

A charming and beautifully illustrated book about the world’s most beloved bird, written by a leading Scientist at The British Antarctic Survey, illustrated by his wife. There’s something about pengu...

www.penguin.co.uk

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Adrian Luckman @adrianluckman.bsky.social · Mar 31

Update on Thwaites Glacier Eastern Ice Shelf from Copernicus Sentinel-1 SAR. Downloadable version here: aluckman4.wixsite.com/ade-s-world-...

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British Antarctic Survey 🐧 @bas.ac.uk · Mar 25

Year-end scramble getting you down? ⏳

Applications for lots of our Antarctic #jobs are closing in the next week. They include vehicles manager at Halley, and Radio Operator and IT Engineer at Rothera Research Station.

These are jobs unlike any other, in one of the most beautiful places on Earth ⬇️

Seriously remote work, in Antarctica. The photo is of Halley Research Station, stretching into the distance on a flat white polar landscape, with the label 'Today's Office'

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Jonathan Amos @jcdamos.bsky.social · Mar 24

Iceberg A23a pictured from the ISS. The space station is almost as far south as it can reach here (51.5° S, 49.0° W - altitude of 422km). Picture taken on 14 March, so the berg had been grounded at South Georgia for a fortnight by this time.

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Antarctic News @antarcticanews.bsky.social · Mar 22

Scientists made a stunning discovery beneath an Antarctic ice shelf—thriving life in a world once thought uninhabitable.The breakthrough offers new insights into deep-sea ecosystems and the resilience of life in extreme environments.

indianexpress.com/ar...

Why scientists were surprised to find life under Antarctic ice shelf

The mission was part of Challenger 150, a UNESCO-endorsed global initiative for deep-sea research. The discoveries were announced on Thursday. The findings provide new insights into how ecosystems function beneath floating sections of the Antarctic ice.

indianexpress.com

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British Antarctic Survey 🐧 @bas.ac.uk · Mar 19

1.2 million years - have you heard of ice this old?! 🧊

These ice cores were retrieved as part of the Beyond EPICA - Oldest Ice project, which aims to unlock crucial insights into Earth's past climate and atmospheric conditions

#ice #climate

Read the full story 👇
www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/a...

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Adrian Luckman @adrianluckman.bsky.social · Mar 17

As polar night ends and sunlight begins to return to Longyearbyen, lets see how the Svalbard seasons progressed last year - from ice-locked fjords in March, through to the first snows of October. Thanks to NASA MODIS via GIBS. Download at full resolution here: aluckman4.wixsite.com/ade-s-world-...

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Peter T Fretwell @ptfretwell.bsky.social · Mar 10

Bedmap3 is now out
rdcu.be/ecTmO

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Mapping and Geographic Information Centre @magic.bas.ac.uk · Mar 7

The last Twin Otter aircraft has just left Rothera which marks the end of the field season, and gives us a chance to look back at the support we have provided over the year. We started with fieldwork and air unit maps!

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A fieldwork map of the Union Glacier region. Ice thickness is shown in a yellowy-green colour ramp, contours are shown with thin blue lines, and mountain spot heights are given in metres and feet.

A map of the Antarctic Peninsula and West Antarctica, with blue sea and white land. Ice shelves are grey. Various depots are shown on the map as pink crosses, and lines are drawn between these points giving distances.

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Mapping and Geographic Information Centre @magic.bas.ac.uk · Mar 4

The world's largest iceberg, A23a, appears to have grounded close to South Georgia. We've been monitoring and mapping this berg for many years now and we're watching closely to see what it might do next! These maps show its route since 1986 and the latest position to the SW of South Georgia ❄️🐧
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A map of the recent positions of iceberg A23a from 17th Jan - 3rd March 2025. Bathymetry is shown on the map, with shallow shelf areas indicating where the iceberg is stuck on the seafloor.

A map showing the track of iceberg A23a from calving (breaking off) the Filchner Ice Shelf in 1986, to its most recent position SW of South Georgia. The track is shown with purple dots. Bathymetry is shown with a blue colour ramp.

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British Antarctic Survey 🐧 @bas.ac.uk · Feb 28

Hot off the press - the latest edition of the BAS Long Read! 🔥📰

Get ready to hear from three Antarctic scientists - Dr Emma Pearce, Dr Liz Thomas, and Dr Dieter Tetzner - about their work drilling for ice cores in Antarctica

Grab a coffee, and settle down for a read 👇
www.bas.ac.uk/blogpost/the...

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British Antarctic Survey 🐧 @bas.ac.uk · Feb 17

Here's the @aria-research.bsky.social page about the Forecasting Tipping Points programme. It's well worth a proper read!
🌍 www.aria.org.uk/opportunity-...

Here’s the BAS news story about GRAIL - and three other projects involving BAS researchers:
❄️ tinyurl.com/kzhhha6w

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Scientists secure funding to study Greenland and North Atlantic climate tipping points - British Antarctic Survey

British Antarctic Survey (BAS) researchers have been selected for funding from The Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) to help improve our understanding of climate tipping points. These tippin...

tinyurl.com

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Earth and Space Research @earthspaceresearch.bsky.social · Feb 11

A new paper about the Antarctic Ice Sheet in a special issue of @science.org reviews critical knowledge gaps in our understanding of how Antarctica responds to variations in global climate.

Antarctica in 2025: Drivers of deep uncertainty in projected ice loss
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Picture of Antarctic Ice Sheet as seen from plane. Photo by Susan Howard, ESR

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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · Feb 7

Find out why this is the perfect place for an automatic monitoring station to measure ocean temperature, salinity and currents. It's crucial research about potential sea-level rise: are warming waters melting the ice shelf that holds back the glaciers?
▶️ aapp.shorthandstories.com/fishing-for-...

Fishing for a glacier's secrets

A story of audacious science on an Antarctic ice shelf

aapp.shorthandstories.com

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Mapping and Geographic Information Centre @magic.bas.ac.uk · Feb 4

A new iceberg, ~30x14 km in size, recently calved from the southern end of the George VI Ice Shelf. It's called A84 and is already making quite an impact, bumping into the Stange Ice Shelf over the weekend! These Copernicus Sentinel-1 images from Polar View show the new berg over the last few days.

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Keith Makinson @keithmakinson.bsky.social · Jan 31

www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/a...

Ancient Antarctic ice loss offers insights into future climate scenarios - British Antarctic Survey

Scientists from the University of Cambridge and British Antarctic Survey have used ice core records to draw new conclusions about how Antarctica was affected by increased global temperatures over 100,...

www.bas.ac.uk

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Laura Gerrish @lauragerrish.bsky.social · Jan 30

Beautiful Sentinel-2 imagery of George VI Ice Shelf with lots of meltwater from yesterday. The patterns that this water produces is like artwork! Fossil Bluff is shown in the second image, and Hodgson Lake shown in the last - a former subglacial lake sealed under ice thick perennial ice ❄️

A satellite image showing lots of meltwater pool on an ice shelf in the centre, and rocky outcrops on the left (west) on Alexander Island, and Palmer Land on the right (east).

Hodgson Lake, Citadel Bastion and Corner Cliffs on Alexander Island.

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Dr Joanne Johnson @geologicaljo.bsky.social · Jan 30

🔥New paper alert! 🔥🧪❄️🥼

Ever wondered what to consider when drilling through an ice sheet into rock? We take you through how we chose a drill site in West #Antarctica using field observations, samples, radar survey, modelling & satellite imagery.
tc.copernicus.org/articles/19/... @bas.ac.uk

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Assessing the suitability of sites near Pine Island Glacier for subglacial bedrock drilling aimed at detecting Holocene retreat–readvance

Abstract. Unambiguous identification of past episodes of ice sheet thinning below the modern surface and grounding line retreat inboard of present requires recovery and exposure dating of subglacial b...

tc.copernicus.org

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Eric Steig @ericsteig.bsky.social · Jan 29

Important paper in Nature today about collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. There is a positive isotope anomaly at Skytrain Ice Rise during the last interglacial, consistent with what we found in our high-resolution water-isotope simulations when WAIS collapses.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The Ronne Ice Shelf survived the last interglacial - Nature

Sea salt data from an ice core record show that Antarctica’s Ronne Ice Shelf survived the last interglacial, the last period of enhanced and sustained global warmth about 125,000 years ago.

www.nature.com

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Prof Michael Meredith 🌊🧪🥼❄️ @oceanandice.bsky.social · Jan 25

The Southern Ocean is a critical part of our planet, exerting profound influences over global climate and ecosystems.

Great to see some of the leading-order priorities for its research elucidated by Earle, @carlosmoffat.com et al.! 🌊🧪🥼❄️

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Andy Shepherd @andyshepherd.bsky.social · Jan 25

Satellites have transformed our understanding of Earths polar regions, and it's wonderful to see the work of The IMBIE Team recognised by @esa.int as a groundbreaking discovery !

tinyurl.com/mtut9dc6

Cover of the report which shows an image of Earth from space

A page from the report which contains images of the polar ice sheet thickness change and a graph of their sea level contribution

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