Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario

POLAR NEWSREEL

01 Life at the bottom of the Southern Ocean: The team of the icebreaker RRS Sir David Attenborough has been testing the new deep sea research capabilities in the 5.6 km (3.5 mi) deep and least explored parts of the Southern Ocean, the Hesperides Deep, unveiling incredible lifeforms at the bottom of the sea. | 02 New interactive Antarctic mapping tool: The Australian Antarctic Division developed the amazing interactive mapping tool, Nilas to to assist voyage planning and enhance climate research in the sea ice zone.

RACE FOR THE OLDEST ICE A global race is on to drill for the oldest known layers of Antarctic ice, so researchers can peek back in time to better understand the planet’s hotter future. Picking up from the record-breaking 2017 Allan Hills ice core, that unearthed ice dating back 2.7 million years, the US team returns to the site and aims to fill the gaps in the climate records. At the same time, the European project Beyond EPICA aims at obtaining ice cores, which are expected to provide continuous high-resolution climatic data up to 1.5 million years old at a site less than 40 km away from the Italo-French Concordia station at Little Dome C. End of January 2023, the team reached an important milestone and successfully completed the first ice core drilling campaign at a depth of 808 metres. Only five kilometres away from the European drilling site, the Australian Antarctic Division is making camp for their Million Year Ice Core project. To do so, the Australian team is mastering an incredible logistical challenge and traverses the East Antarctic Ice Sheet from the coastal Casey Station to the inland camp at the drilling site - and back. Lotter Kock, the Technical Lead for the Ice Drill System, tells his story on ABC Radio Hobart, certainly worth listening.

Check out Henry's article "Deep Freeze: Ice Core Drilling for Earth's Climate Archive" for a deeper dive into the topic.

Extra Media: Follow BAS scientists Huw Griffith and Jamie Maxwell on Twitter.

This is an episode of the Curiously Polar podcast

with Chris Marquardt https://chrismarquardt.com/ Henry Páll Wulff: https://henrypall.com/ Mario Acquarone https://www.buymeacoffee.com/polarmario

Listen to all podcast episodes at https://curiouslypolar.com

All video episodes at https://tfttf.com/curiouslypolarvideo

Find us here: Web: https://curiouslypolar.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/curiouslypolar Instagram: https://instagram.com/curiouslypolar

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario

It's that time of the year HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!! And while we covered some festive topics and traditions in the past, let's loaok at what we are doing for Christmas ourselves.

The Curiously Polar Holiday Book Club (CPHBC):

• Jean-Baptiste Charcot by Dominique Le Brun
• SIKU: Knowing Our Ice - Documenting Inuit Sea Ice Knowledge and Use by Igor Krupnik et al.
• Antarktikos Magazine - #1 Mapping Nature
• The Mapping of Antarctica
• Antarktische Wildnis - Südgeorgien by Thies Matzen and Kicki Ericson
• Master of Desolation by Joseph J. Fuller
• Le Pourquoi-pas dans L'Antarctique by Jean-Baptiste Charcot
• Charcot, le Chevalier du Pole by Marguerite Verdat
• The New York Taxi Back Seat Book by David Bradford

POLAR NEWSREEL:

Nations Adopt Four Goals, 23 Targets for 2030 At the 2022 UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) in Montreal 188 nations agreed on an unprecedented package of measures to protect and restore biodiversity and natural ecosystems. The agreement, called the “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework” (GBF), includes four goals and 23 targets for achievement by 2030. The goals include protecting and restoring ecosystems, officially recognizing "nature's contribution to people", several ways of financing the process across borders.

New Polar Code Regulations The new addendum, second phase of the Polar Code, urged Member States to implement voluntary safety measures of the Polar Code on ships not certified under the SOLAS Convention, approved guidance for navigation and communication equipment intended for use on ships operating in polar waters, approved Interim guidelines on life-saving appliances and arrangements for ships operating in polar waters and gave consideration to the possible application of chapters 9 (Safety of navigation) and 11 (Voyage planning) of the Polar Code to non-SOLAS ships and discussing how best to enhance the safety of these ships when operating in polar waters. Additional link

New artifacts extracted from HMS Erebus during 2022 campaign During the 11 days campaign, a team of archeologists performed 56 dives on the wreck of one of Franklin's lost ships, the HMS Erebus. They retrieved exciting and promising artefacts that will surely contribute to forming the picture of the fate of the expedition. The conditions of the wreck are excellent but delicate and this ship will be the initial focus of the work. The other ship, the HMS Terror, is in a deeper, more secure position and will have to wait until the work on the HMS Erebus is finished.

Why is the southern hemisphere stormier than the northern? The Southern Ocean regions have picturesque names: “roaring forties”, “furious fifties” and “screaming sixties”. A study combining observations and models indicates that the global ocean “conveyor belt” and the large mountain ranges in the northern hemisphere are some of the main factors contributing to the difference in storminess between the hemispheres. This work also shows that the southern hemisphere is getting even stormier over time, whereas the north is not. This is consistent with what climate models simulate for a warming world. These changes are important because we know stronger storminess can result in more high-impact events, such as extreme winds, temperatures and rainfall. Additional link

Current State of Sea Ice Cover Rapid changes have been occurring in the Arctic, where the ice coverage has been declining at a substantial rate. In contrast, in the Antarctic the sea ice coverage has been increasing although at a lesser rate than the decreases in the Arctic. In the North at the beginning of winter, ice extent seems to be increasing close to the average from the 2010s. In the South, sea ice extent is particularly low and in an unusual distribution. Additional link

This is an episode of the Curiously Polar podcast

with Chris Marquardt https://chrismarquardt.com/ Henry Páll Wulff: https://henrypall.com/ Mario Acquarone https://www.buymeacoffee.com/polarmario

Listen to all podcast episodes at https://curiouslypolar.com

All video episodes at https://tfttf.com/curiouslypolarvideo

Find us here: Web: https://curiouslypolar.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/curiouslypolar Instagram: https://instagram.com/curiouslypolar

Watch this on video | Buy us a coffee: Chris / Henry / Mario

Henry sent a message from a ship far far away. And that message had a discussion attached to it that he had with his colleague and legendary expedition leader Solan Jensen. They talked for half an hour about this and that, about the changes in the polar regions as a global issue, about excursions into the environment, about the climate and about the overall industry. Enjoy!

This is an episode of the Curiously Polar podcast

with Chris Marquardt https://chrismarquardt.com/ Henry Páll Wulff: https://henrypall.com/ Mario Acquarone https://www.buymeacoffee.com/polarmario

Listen to all podcast episodes at https://curiouslypolar.com

All video episodes at https://tfttf.com/curiouslypolarvideo

Find us here: Web: https://curiouslypolar.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/curiouslypolar Instagram: https://instagram.com/curiouslypolar