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American adventurer Colin O'Brady just made it across Antarctica alive, alone, and way ahead of schedule. That feat makes O'Brady the first person to ever cross the southern continent on a solo, unsupported mission without getting resupplied or using a kite. "This is something that no one in history has ever accomplished, and people have been trying for 100 years," O'Brady told Business Insider before he started the record-breaking trek. According to his live-tracking map, O'Brady reached his finish line on the Ross Ice Shelf on December 26. He quickly followed up with photo proof, confirming he'd skied 932 miles...

Scientists were surprised by the results of their study. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ In November, scientists from New Zealand used a hot water drill to go deep into Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf. The shelf, which can be up to 10,000 feet thick, is the largest of several that hold back West Antarctica's massive amounts of ice. If these were to collapse, global sea level would rise by ten feet. Drilling a hole and lowering a camera and thermometer inside is a way for researchers to understand the history of the shelf, and what is happening to it now. In measuring the temperature and...

SURPRISING FINDS The surprises began almost as soon as a camera was lowered into the first borehole, around December 1. The undersides of ice shelves are usually smooth due to gradual melting. But as the camera passed through the bottom of the hole, it showed the underside of the ice adorned with a glittering layer of flat ice crystals—like a jumble of snowflakes—evidence that in this particular place, sea water is actually freezing onto the base of the ice instead of melting it. “It blew our minds,” says Christina Hulbe, a glaciologist from the University of Otago in New Zealand,...

A mantle plume producing almost as much heat as Yellowstone supervolcano appears to be melting part of West Antarctica from beneath. Researchers at NASA have discovered a huge upwelling of hot rock under Marie Byrd Land, which lies between the Ross Ice Shelf and the Ross Sea, is creating vast lakes and rivers under the ice sheet. The presence of a huge mantle plume could explain why the region is so unstable today, and why it collapsed so quickly at the end of the last Ice Age, 11,000 years ago.

ROSS ICE SHELF, Antarctica (Reuters) - From a distance, the ANDRILL operation appears out of nowhere like a mirage: a white-draped tower amid giant blue boxcars laid out on a frozen sea. But this mammoth venture to drill through ice, ocean and back through time is as real as a science lab and as practical as an oil rig: hard-hatted drillers and scientists work in concert to find clues to a time when Antarctica was warm and wet. Because the researchers are convinced that a warmer age is in prospect as a result of human-spurred global climate change, they want...