All posts tagged: Arctic

The number of icebergs in the Arctic is surging and transforming life on the ocean floor

The number of icebergs in the Arctic is surging and transforming life on the ocean floor

Published by Jenni Sidey

Far below the Arctic’s drifting ice, the seafloor has begun to change in a way few people ever see. Stones are falling out of melting icebergs, landing on soft deep-sea mud, and creating new places for life to take hold. That shift starts much farther north, where large glaciers in northeast Greenland and parts of the Russian Arctic are breaking apart more often than they once did. As those glaciers calve, they do not release clean ice alone. They also send out icebergs packed with rock fragments and sediment scraped up during years of travel. In the Fram Strait, between Greenland and Svalbard, scientists began noticing just how much debris some of those icebergs were carrying. During a 2021 expedition aboard the research icebreaker Polarstern, biologist Melanie Bergmann of the Alfred Wegener Institute spotted something striking from a helicopter. “Some of the icebergs were carrying unusually large amounts of debris and looked almost black from above.” Iceberg photo. (CREDIT: Alfred Wegener Institute / Christian R. Rohleder) The sight stood out even to seasoned Arctic researchers. …

Geoengineering can thicken Arctic sea ice, but for how long?

Geoengineering can thicken Arctic sea ice, but for how long?

Published by skeptic

The Real Ice trial in Canada pumped seawater from below the ice sheet onto the surface Real Ice Each winter, Canada builds more than 7000 kilometres of ice roads, in part by drilling holes in lake ice and pumping water onto the surface, where it freezes and thickens the ice for massive vehicles, as seen in the TV series Ice Road Truckers. If we did the same thing on top of Arctic sea ice, could we thicken it enough to stop it from disappearing? That’s the question tested by geoengineering researchers in field trials in Canada and Norway in 2024 and 2025. It’s one relevant to the whole planet, since Arctic sea ice, which is expected to disappear completely in the summertime as early as the 2030s, reflects more of the sun’s warmth back into space than open ocean. While both trials thickened sea ice, the scientists in Canada said this slowed the ice’s melt when summer came, while those in Norway found it didn’t. Both groups have continued doing trials. “Yes, the ice is …

Norway Lobbies To Persuade EU To Drop Arctic Drilling Ban

Norway Lobbies To Persuade EU To Drop Arctic Drilling Ban

Published by Jenni Sidey

Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com, Norway, Western Europe’s top oil and gas producer, has intensified lobbying at the European Union to persuade the bloc to remove or tweak its moratorium on Arctic oil and gas drilling. Norway, which is not a member of the EU but is the biggest gas supplier to European markets, has sent nearly a dozen of its ministers to Brussels so far this year to discuss energy and trade and the state of the Arctic drilling. The Iran war and the biggest oil and gas supply disruption in history have added to Norway’s arguments that Europe needs reliable supply from places outside of conflict zones. However, the EU’s moratorium enacted in 2021 due to the bloc’s climate commitments and environmental concerns, does not allow drilling in Norway’s northern parts of the Barents Sea, which is estimated to contain most of the remaining Norwegian oil and gas resources. “Norway is very active and good at making its voice heard,” the EU’s special envoy for the Arctic, Claude Veron-Reville, told Bloomberg in …

Canada Deepens Arctic Defense Ties With Nordics After Trump Threats

Canada Deepens Arctic Defense Ties With Nordics After Trump Threats

Published by Sam Flores

CAMBRIDGE BAY, Nunavut, May 16 (Reuters) – Since U.S. President Donald Trump’s barrage of threats to seize Greenland, authorities on the frozen island ⁠have ⁠been seeking help from a northern ally: Canada.  A reserve unit of the Canadian ⁠armed forces called the Rangers has long maintained a year-round presence in mostly inaccessible Arctic communities. For three years, authorities in Greenland and Denmark have consulted with Canadian officials on how ​to set up their own version of the Rangers — conversations that grew more urgent with Trump’s threats and growing fears of Russian hostility in the Arctic. “The rhetoric coming out of the White House has sped up efforts to rebuff the idea that Arctic communities need the U.S. to come in ‌and save them,” said Whitney Lackenbauer, an honorary lieutenant-colonel Canadian Ranger involved ‌in the talks, who spoke with Reuters during a recent 5,000-kilometer Arctic snowmobile trek by the Rangers. “The Nordic countries and Canada, we’re increasingly realizing we can come together in military and diplomatic ways to send a message that carries moral weight.” …

The UK’s New Multinational Naval Initiative Aims To Contain Russia In The Arctic & Baltic

The UK’s New Multinational Naval Initiative Aims To Contain Russia In The Arctic & Baltic

Published by Jenni Sidey

Authored by Andrew Korybko, General Sir Gwyn Jenkins, head of the British Royal Navy, announced that his counterparts from the 10-nation Joint Expeditionary Taskforce comprised of the UK, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Netherlands agreed to create “a family of allied fleets”. Officially known as the “Northern Navies Initiative” (NNI), it’s explicitly aimed at containing Russia in the Arctic and Baltic. This represents the evolution of the UK’s Arctic-Baltic policy that was elaborated on last summer here. Estonia, at the far end of the Baltic Sea in proximity to St. Petersburg, was identified as the eastern lynchpin of this strategy with Greenland now becoming its western one. The inclusion of (for now still Denmark’s) Greenland, Iceland, and of course the UK hypothetically enables this “family of allied fleets” to monitor the so-called GIUK gap, which is Russia’s Arctic gateway to the Atlantic. Denmark also controls the Baltic Straits so the NNI can indeed potentially blockade Russia to an extent. As was explained here last month, however, any blockade would be an act of war that could prompt …

Arctic fires are releasing carbon stored for thousands of years

Arctic fires are releasing carbon stored for thousands of years

Published by skeptic

A wildfire rips through the boreal forest in Manitoba, Canada, in 2025 Anadolu via Getty Images The wildfires that have been raging in many places around the Arctic in recent years could be contributing much more to global warming than currently thought. It has been assumed that what’s burning is mostly recent plant growth, but a study of soil cores from around the Arctic and boreal regions has shown that these fires are igniting stored carbon that is up to 5000 years old. “Soil combustion could unlock long-stored carbon from soils that have been considered previously as carbon sinks,” says Meri Ruppel at the Finnish Meteorological Institute in Helsinki. Currently, climate models don’t take the release of this ancient carbon into account. Plants grow slowly in the cold conditions of the Arctic, but their remains can accumulate in soil in forms such as peat, building up over centuries and millennia. This means soils in the Arctic and in the boreal forests nearby have been acting as a carbon sink – that is, helping to remove …

Giant arctic continent launched dinosaurs to world domination

Giant arctic continent launched dinosaurs to world domination

Published by skeptic

Dinosaurs could survive in cold conditions, as illustrated by Beipiaosaurus, a feathered dinosaur that lived between 127 and 121 million years ago MARK P. WITTON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY The Arctic was once home to a landmass three times the size of Antarctica. About 200 million years ago, it helped cause a cold spell that lasted for millennia and gave dinosaurs their chance to conquer the planet. According to palaeontologist Paul Olsen at Columbia University in New York, this “giant Arctic continent” consisted of what is now Siberia and China. For most of the Mesozoic Era – between 252 and 66 million years ago – all of Earth’s land was gathered into one supercontinent, Pangaea, except, it was thought, for what is now China. This slab of continental material was divided into two chunks that both drifted at a temperate latitude in what was the world’s only ocean at the time, named Panthalassa. But recent analysis of the geology – including magnetic features in rocks, which offer a way of reconstructing the ancient latitude of their formation …

Canadian Military Aims to Show It Can Go It Alone in the Arctic

Canadian Military Aims to Show It Can Go It Alone in the Arctic

Published by Sam Flores

CAMBRIDGE BAY, Nunavut, April 21 (Reuters) – Over the past three months, Canadian soldiers conducted a more than 5,000-kilometer snowmobile patrol in extreme Arctic conditions traveling from Inuvik, Northwest Territories ⁠to Churchill, ⁠Manitoba, braving blizzards and minus-60 degree Celsius temperatures in military exercises designed to prepare for a foreign ⁠threat – and demonstrate Canada’s ability to take care of itself.  That’s a tall order. The political climate has changed since U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to make Canada an American state, take control of Greenland and withdraw from NATO, but ​the harsh realities of operating in Canada’s frozen north have not. “There are Canadians up here defending (the country) at all times of the day,” said Travis Hanes, a commanding officer of the 1st Canadian Ranger Patrol Group, a special unit of the Canadian Armed Forces’ reserve. “They’re stretching their abilities across some of the most inhospitable terrain and climate that you can possibly imagine.”  He spoke to Reuters while ‌recovering from a frostbitten nose after weeks of being on the snowmobile patrol.    To …

Russia mysteriously closes off Arctic waters for ‘missile landing zone’ near NATO border | World | News

Russia mysteriously closes off Arctic waters for ‘missile landing zone’ near NATO border | World | News

Published by Sam Flores

Russia has warned ships and aircraft to avoid large areas of the Barents Sea off northern Norway, designating them as “impact areas for Russian missiles” ahead of a planned space launch. The zones — north of Varanger and northeast of Bear Island — will remain restricted until April 30, in an unusually long safety notice for the region. Despite the alarming wording, the “missile” reference is apparently Russian terminology for rocket launches, where discarded parts of a space rocket are formally classified as falling “missile elements.” In this case, the warning relates to a Soyuz-2-1b launch from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, likely around April 23. As the rocket ascends, large metal structures known as payload fairings are jettisoned and fall back to Earth and two such components are expected to splash down in the designated areas. The alerts were issued through both aviation and maritime safety systems, advising seafarers to steer clear of the zones during the window. The mission is expected to carry a batch of Rassvet broadband satellites, part of Vladimir Putin’s push to …

Arctic Metagaz: Russian ‘shadow fleet’ tanker adrift in the Mediterranean faces uncertain fate

Arctic Metagaz: Russian ‘shadow fleet’ tanker adrift in the Mediterranean faces uncertain fate

Published by Sam Flores

According to Libyan media reports, forces loyal to the strongman of eastern Libya Khalifa Haftar dispatched a naval patrol vessel and a team of divers to monitor the Arctic Metagaz on Monday, April 6. The Russian LNG tanker has been drifting in the Mediterranean since a Libyan towing operation failed four days earlier. This is the latest twist in a maritime saga that began on March 3 off the Libyan coast. The Arctic Metagaz caught fire following an explosion while carrying 60,000 tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) – natural gas cooled to -160°C to facilitate transport. All crew members were rescued. Although Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the incident, Russia has accused Kyiv of targeting the tanker with naval drones launched from Libya. An investigation by RFI appears to support this claim. These images show the Arctic Metagaz on fire on March 3, 2026. Source: X/@trbrtc To display this content from X (Twitter), you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. Accept Manage my choices The vessel, sanctioned by the US and the …