Russian scientists reach Lake Vostok...

beneath 2.4 miles (3.8 km) of Antarctic ice after two decades of drilling.  The enormous sub-glacial lake is thought to have been isolated from the Earth's atmosphere for about 20 million years, and will be carefully sampled for microbial life during the next field season.

What I'm reading...

right now:  Race to The End - Amundsen, Scott, and the Attainment of the South Pole by Ross D.E. MacPhee.  This is as much a coffee table book due to its lavish illustrations including archival photographs and detailed maps, as a rich account of two competing Antarctic expeditions and personalities.  The frigid evening temperatures here in the high desert make for a perfect setting to read this heroic, and tragic, tale.

Geographic South Pole...

reached for the first time 100 years ago on this date in 1911 by Roald Amundsen.  I've just ordered this book for some holiday reading, as I prepare for my personal mini-expedition to southern Utah.  When I'm not hiking or skiing or exploring I'll be reading.

UPDATE: Why the British Were Doomed to Lose the Race to the South Pole.

So close yet so far...

Winter Halts Drilling Into 14-Million-Year-Old Lake

Scientists go 'gaga'...

to find creatures beneath 600 feet of ice.

Is this a preview of what we might find on Europa?

I'll drink to that...

Shackleton's Booze Found In The Antarctic

“To our amazement we found five crates, three labeled as containing whiskey and two labeled as containing brandy,” Al Fastier, of the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust, told AFP. The real bonus was the unexpected discovery of the contents of the brandy crates, one labeled Chas McKinlay & Co and the other labeled The Hunter Valley Distillery Limited Allandale, he added.

Ernest Shackleton is one of my explorer heroes, and if you haven't read this epic tale of survival then be sure to put it on your reading list: Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. Simply amazing.

Images of the cryosphere...

in a photogallery at Wired.com: Earth's Icy Extremes Seen From Space.

Say what?

Headline: Ozone Hole Linked To Increased Antarctic Sea Ice. Fact:

"Overall, the Antarctic sea ice has grown at a rate of about 38,610 sq miles each decade since the 1970s."

Interesting. Human pollutants are increasing sea ice in the Antarctic?! Hmm.

More counter-intuitive research findings: A Little Air Pollution Boosts Vegetation’s Carbon Uptake. Key bits:

"The world’s vegetation soaked up carbon dioxide more efficiently under the polluted skies of recent decades than it would have under a pristine atmosphere, a new analysis in the April 23 Nature suggests."

“Surprisingly, the effects of atmospheric pollution seem to have enhanced global plant productivity by as much as 25 percent from 1960 to 1999."

Does anyone really believe that climate scientists have any idea how global climate actually functions, including the countless feedback mechanisms?

Antarctic ice growing,...

not melting, according to the British Antarctic Survey in a soon-to-be-published technical article in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters.

The opposite impression has been pushed on the public by hysterical media reporting last week (using recycled photos taken more than a year ago) about the imminent collapse of the Wilkins Ice Shelf, thereby indicating runaway global warming. Never mind the fact that fracturing of ice is a mechanical process, usually assisted by bitterly cold temperatures, rather than a melting phenomenon.

For a thorough, critical scientific analysis be sure to read Watts Up With That? In fact, if you are interested in global climate change you should bookmark this site and visit it often. Then make up your own mind.

Blood Falls in Antarctica...

yields 1.5 million year old microbes that have been sequestered by the glacial ice cover. The newly discovered chemotrophic organisms live without light or oxygen in a briny fluid and utilize sulfur to extract iron from the underlying bedrock.

Why not on Mars?

An image of Earth...

from space showing the Dry Valleys in Antarctica (click to enlarge.) Many scientists regard this remote and inhospitable location as a terrestrial analogue to Mars. My colleague, CN, spent a summer field season in this amazing place.

Image credit: false-color image captured by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite on 29 November 2000.