Antarctic Ice Sheet Archives

Grounding line retreat on West Antarctica, 1992-2025

Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Cryobiology, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Ice Planet Update: Antarctica Retreat Study Signals Future Ice Loss

by Keith CowingMarch 23, 2026March 23, 2026

The ice along Antarctica’s ‘grounding lines’ has been largely stable over the past 30 years – but ice has retreated by more than 40 km in some areas, a new […]

The subglacial microbiome splits into two clusters. (A) An NMDS on the unaggregated read counts of all taxonomic nodes within 19 abundant subglacial classes splits samples into two clear clusters. (B) Proportions of each subglacial class in each sample, grouped by cluster. (C) Predicted proportion of aerobic vs anaerobic bacteria for each sample, using reads which mapped to taxa in the 16 subglacial bacterial classes. (D) Existing Antarctic subglacial samples can be assigned to one of our clusters by assessing the prevalence of their reported top taxa in our samples. -- biorxiv.org

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Fossils & Paleontology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Microbiology & Virology, Status Report

Ancient Metagenomics Reveals Subglacial Microbiomes Driven By Oxygen Availability

by Keith CowingJanuary 4, 2026January 3, 2026

Beneath Earth’s glaciers and ice sheets lies an aquatic realm where ice, water, rock, and microbial life interact, driving chemical reactions that can collectively influence the global carbon cycle, polar […]