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The Antarctic Roadmap Challenges (ARC) project identified critical requirements to deliver high priority Antarctic research in the 21st century. The ARC project addressed the challenges of enabling technologies, facilitating access, providing logistics and infrastructure, and capitalizing on international co-operation. Technological requirements include: i) innovative automated in situ observing systems, sensors and interoperable platforms (including power demands), ii) realistic and holistic numerical models, iii) enhanced remote sensing and sensors, iv) expanded sample collection and retrieval technologies, and v) greater cyber-infrastructure to process ‘big data’ collection, transmission and analyses while promoting data accessibility. These technologies must be widely available, performance and reliability must be improved and technologies used elsewhere must be applied to the Antarctic. Considerable Antarctic research is field-based, making access to vital geographical targets essential. Future research will require continent- and ocean-wide environmentally responsible access to coastal and interior Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Year-round access is indispensable. The cost of future Antarctic science is great but there are opportunities for all to participate commensurate with national resources, expertise and interests. The scope of future Antarctic research will necessitate enhanced and inventive interdisciplinary and international collaborations. The full promise of Antarctic science will only be realized if nations act together.

Ice cores provide temporal records of surface mass balance (SMB). Coastal areas of Antarctica have relatively high and variable SMB, but are under-represented in records spanning more than 100 years. Here we present SMB reconstruction from a 120 m-long ice core drilled in 2012 on the Derwael Ice Rise, coastal Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica. Water stable isotope (δ18O and δD) stratigraphy is supplemented by discontinuous major ion profiles and continuous electrical conductivity measurements. The base of the ice core is dated to AD 1759 ± 16, providing a climate proxy for the past  ∼ 250 years. The core's annual layer thickness history is combined with its gravimetric density profile to reconstruct the site's SMB history, corrected for the influence of ice deformation. The mean SMB for the core's entire history is 0.47 ± 0.02 m water equivalent (w.e.) a−1. The time series of reconstructed annual SMB shows high variability, but a general increase beginning in the 20th century. This increase is particularly marked during the last 50 years (1962–2011), which yields mean SMB of 0.61 ± 0.01 m w.e. a−1. This trend is compared with other reported SMB data in Antarctica, generally showing a high spatial variability. Output of the fully coupled Community Earth System Model (CESM) suggests that, although atmospheric circulation is the main factor influencing SMB, variability in sea surface temperatures and sea ice cover in the precipitation source region also explain part of the variability in SMB. Local snow redistribution can also influence interannual variability but is unlikely to influence long-term trends significantly. This is the first record from a coastal ice core in East Antarctica to show an increase in SMB beginning in the early 20th century and particularly marked during the last 50 years.

During the first half of the twentieth century a number of individuals in Norway participated in the transfer of animals from both the Arctic to the Antarctic regions and vice versa. These projects may be conceptualized as a form of imperial acclimatization, following in the footsteps of earlier attempts to transplant both plants and animals from their indigenous ranges to new geographic locations for both practical and recreational purposes. Reindeer were introduced to the island of South Georgia before World War I as Norwegian whalers turned a space previously uninhabited by humans into the operational hub of a booming Antarctic whaling industry. The successful transplantation of reindeer was followed by less successful attempts to transfer muskoxen from Greenland to Svalbard and the Scandinavian mainland, penguins from the Antarctic to the coast of Norway, and dreams of transferring fur seals from south to north. We argue that these attempts constituted both practical attempts to “enrich” the fauna of discrete habitats, but also expressions of Norwegian authority over the polar regions at a time when imperial ambitions in both the Arctic and Antarctic had significant traction within Norway. The transplanted animals may thus be conceived as geopolitical instruments – mastery over fauna as being a means of expressing mastery over space.

One hundred Greenland dogs were purchased by Roald Amundsen from the Royal Greenland Trading Company in September 1909 ostensibly for a North Pole expedition, but secretly to use to reach the South Pole. Amundsen considered the dogs “equipment”. He was a complicated character in a very different time. And he compulsively pursued his mission. His actions perhaps are seen differently from the 21st century perspective and in light of our evolving attitude toward animals, especially dogs. This paper presents the facts of what happened concerning the sled dogs, using Amundsen’s own statements in his books, diaries, and letters, as well as the expedition members’ journal entries and personal letters. It focuses on the dogs who made Amundsen’s exploration possible, and who helped humankind discover the final undiscovered part of our world. Amundsen began his Norwegian expedition with 97 sturdy canine souls, who were taken on board the Fram near the coast of Kristiansand in August 1910. Through births and deaths on the ship during their five-month journey south, the dogs’ number swelled to 116 upon arrival in Antarctica. Adults and puppies alike withstood the roller-coaster ride of the Fram on the ocean waters, the heat of the tropics near the equator, and the freezing winter of Antarctica. Taking into account the birth of puppies on the ship and at their Antarctic home Framheim, the actual number of dogs involved in this significant moment in history doubles to over two hundred. But, after initially nurturing and protecting the dogs, Amundsen proceeded to cull them throughout the expedition, slaughtering those he deemed unnecessary or weak, and destroying those who had served their purpose. Amundsen began his South Pole trek in October 1911 with 52 brave canines, and returned with 11, as a result of unnatural, forced attrition. The dogs were nearly starved; at times when they were fed, it was the flesh of their fallen comrades they were given to line their empty stomachs. And yet the dogs all performed their roles brilliantly, even when death was their reward. The sled dogs were the heart and power of the South Pole expedition. The intent of this article is to shine a light on the dogs’ population, accomplishments, and sacrifices, and to give them their due recognition and place in history.

This chapter explores a different kind of Antarctic silence: the silencing of certain stories and voices. It’s the silence of the earliest female travellers to Antarctica.The voices of the earliest female travellers are silent and their stories remain untold, partly because there’s no place for them in the dominant Antarctic narrative of exploration and conquest. Reimagining them through fiction is one way — though with potential pitfalls — to ‘unfreeze’ those stories.

The Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) collected around 150 hours of new gravity, magnetic and ice-penetrating radar data from east and south of Princess Elisabeth station in Dronning Maud Land between 2013 and 2015. Survey lines were spaced 10 km apart. The 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 used different gravimeters; a LaCoste and Romberg AirSea gravimeter (LCR) at constant barometric altitude and a Gravimetric Technologies GT2A gravimeter at constant ground separation. Both surveys used a Scintrex Cs-3 caesium vapour magnetometer mounted in a tail boom with compensation for the airframe calculated using a fuselage-mounted three-component fluxgate magnetometer. The GT2A gravity data reflect the effects of short-wavelength density contrasts between basement rocks and the ice sheet more reliably than the LCR data. Cross-over analysis suggests the repeatability of data collection with the GT2A lies at the sub-milliGal level. A broad subglacial channel that separates eastern Sør Rondane from the Yamato Belgica Mountains is evident in the gravity data. In the south of the survey region, the data reveal a dendritic pattern of subglacial valleys that converge towards the SW. Strong NS-trending magnetic anomalies coincide with the Yamato-Belgica Mountains. Further west, subtler ESE-trending anomalies confirm proposals that the SE Dronning Maud Land province continues into the region south of eastern Sør Rondane. An unexpected feature of both data sets is the apparent termination of the anomaly patterns associated with the province at a NNW-trending anomaly running south of Princess Elisabeth.

The geology of East Antarctica and its correlation in major supercontinents is highly speculative, since only a very small part of it is exposed. Therefore a better connection between geology and geophysics is needed in order to correlate exposed regions with ice-covered, geophysically-defined, blocks. In Dronning Maud Land (DML), two distinct late Mesoproterozoic/early Neoproterozoic tectono-metamorphic provinces appear, separated by the major, NE-trending Forster Magnetic Anomaly and South Orvin Shear Zone. To the west of this lineament, the Maud Belt has clear affinities with Grenville-age continent-continent mobile belts. East of the Forster Magnetic Anomaly, juvenile rocks with early Neoproterozoic age (Rayner-age) and an accretionary character crop out. The international GEA-II expedition (2012) targeted a white spot on the geological map immediately to the E of the Forster Magnetic Anomaly. This area allows the characterization and ground-truthing of a large and mostly ice-covered region, the SE DML Province that had previously been interpreted as an older cratonic block. However, new SHRIMP/SIMS zircon analyses and their geochemistry indicates that the exposed basement consists of a ca. 1000-900 Ma juvenile terrane that is very similar to rocks in Sor Rondane. It lacks significant metamorphic overprint at the end of crust formation, but it shows medium to high-grade overprinting between ca. 630-520 Ma, associated with significant felsic melt production, including A-type granitoid magmatism. Therefore, the aeromagnetically distinct SE DML province does neither represent the foreland of a Late Neoproterozoic/EarlyPaleozoic mobile belt, nor a craton, as has previously been speculated. It more likely represents the more juvenile, westward continuation of Rayner-age crust (1000-900 Ma). To the west it abuts along the NE-trending Forster Magnetic Anomaly. The latter is interpreted as a suture, which separates typical Grenville-age crust of the Maud Belt (ca. 1200-1030 Ma) to the W from Rayner-age crust to the E. Therefore the larger eastern part of DML has clearly Indian affinities. Its juvenile character with a lack of metamorphic overprint at the end of crust formation points to an accretionary history along this part of the Indian segment of Rodinia, immediately following final Rodinia assembly.

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is considered the most unstable part of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. As the WAIS is mostly grounded below sea level, its stability is of great concern. A collapse of large parts of the WAIS would result in a significant global sea-level rise. At present, the WAIS shows dramatic ice loss in its Amundsen Sea sector, especially in Pine Island Bay. Pine Island Glacier (PIG) is characterised by fast flow, major thinning and rapid grounding-line retreat. Its mass los over recent decades is generally attributed to melting caused by the inflow of warm Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW). Future melting of PIG may result in a sea level tipping point, because it could trigger widespread collapse of the WAIS, especially when considering ongoing climate change.

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is considered the most unstable part of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. As the WAIS is mostly grounded below sea level, its stability is of great concern. A collapse of large parts of the WAIS would result in a significant global sea-level rise. At present, the WAIS shows dramatic ice loss in its Amundsen Sea sector, especially in Pine Island Bay. Pine Island Glacier (PIG) is characterised by fast flow, major thinning and rapid grounding-line retreat. Its mass los over recent decades is generally attributed to melting caused by the inflow of warm Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW). Future melting of PIG may result in a sea level tipping point, because it could trigger widespread collapse of the WAIS, especially when considering ongoing climate change.

A project management expert identifies methods for running any project successfully based on lessons learned from the exploits of two storied explorers.

In this study, we analyze a large dataset of seismic signals, recorded by station TROLL in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. The signals, recorded in April–December 2012, came from sources near the edge of the ice shelves, at distances of 230–500 km from TROLL. The sources, which moved westward with time, could be associated with four large, tabular icebergs, drifting between 15° E and 8° W. Combining the seismological data with information from satellite remote sensing, we find that one-third of the signals can be attributed to individual icebergs. The trajectories of three of the associated icebergs are known through iceberg-tracking databases, whereas the fourth, a fragment of one of the other three, is untracked, and only scarce information is available from satellite imagery. The observed seismic signals exhibit a wide variety of frequency characteristics, from unstructured episodes to occurrences of iceberg harmonic tremor. Although we are not able to determine the exact cause of the signals, we classify them into five classes on a phenomenological basis. This study demonstrates the potential of regional seismic networks for iceberg monitoring as supplementary resources to information obtained with remote-sensing technologies.