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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.

A team of conservationists were working on restoring an old hut that served as an Antarctic exploration outpost when they discovered a box full of undeveloped negatives, frozen in a solid block of ice.

Colossal squid hooked with rings the size of tractor tyres   February 22, 2007 - 3:30PM     New Zealand fishermen in the Ross Sea have caught what's thought to be the largest squid ever found.Its estimated weight is about 450 kilograms.The species is known as the colossal squid, shorter but much heavier than the better known giant squid.It was hauled to the surface while munching on one of its favourite foods, a Patagonian toothfish which the fishermen had hooked on a longline.Dr Steve O'Shea, from the Auckland University of Technology, says the previous largest find weighed 300 kilograms.He...

The world's biggest iceberg has been split in two by a powerful storm, scientists say. The huge iceberg, the size of Jamaica, broke up over the last month. Eight smaller icebergs have also split away from it. The 4,400 square mile piece of ice, named B15, suffered a massive fracture when the Antarctic storm swept in. Scientists said they had expected it to split "eventually". The two pieces, designated B15A and B15J by the US National Ice Centre, are now slowly edging their way along the Ross Sea, said Mike Williams of New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric...