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Arctic Ocean

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New Research

New Map Reveals What Lies Below Greenland’s Ice

This map of ‘naked’ Greenland is the most detailed yet and can help in refining climate predictions

The Southern Pole of Inaccessibility. The thing sticking up in the middle is the bust of Lenin.

These Places Are Actually The Middle of Nowhere

These “poles of inaccessibility” are among the world’s most remote places

Cool Finds

Surprising Footage Captures Arctic Jellyfish Lurking Under the Ice

The creatures were previously thought not tough enough to survive the harsh winters

Usually the massive creatures rest between hunting dives on floating ice. But as ice becomes increasingly scarce, the creatures are forced ashore.

Melting Sea Ice Forces Walruses Ashore in Earliest Gathering Yet Observed

As ice melts, the Pacific walruses are losing their icy resting platforms

The Mackenzie (Dehcho) River is the second-largest river system in North America.

How One Quest for the Northwest Passage Ended at the Icy Mouth of Disappointment River

The Mackenzie River, as it’s know today, is North America’s second-largest river system–but it wasn’t what its namesake was looking for

A field of methane craters on the floor of the Barents Sea

New Research

Ancient Methane Explosions Rocked the Arctic Ocean at the End of the Last Ice Age

As retreating ice relieved seafloor pressures, trapped methane burst through to the water column, study says

This celestial chart from 1687 is one of many illustrations from books, charts, and maps showing artists’ imaginings of polar bears.

How Polar Bears Became the Dragons of the North

Renaissance maps depicting the “white bears” say more about our own fears and fantasies than about the predators themselves

Arctic Cruise Line Baptizes Its Passengers in Ice

MS Fram has just crossed the Arctic Circle, so far north that the sun practically never sets. To celebrate, the crew stage a frosty mock baptism

New Research

DNA Could Identify the Sailors (Including Women) of the Doomed Franklin Expedition

New analysis on bone and and tooth fragments will allow researchers to learn more about the ill-fated crew

Microplastics mixed in with plankton from an Arctic Ocean sample

New Research

Ocean Currents Are Sweeping Billions of Tiny Plastic Bits to the Arctic

Currents are acting like a conveyor belt for plastic, dumping the bits in pristine northern waters

Coralline algae of the genus Clathromorphum are specific to the Arctic and Subarctic, and they have critically important stories to tell about their ocean and how it has changed over the centuries.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

In Its Layers, This Stunning Pink Coralline Algae Holds Secrets of Climates Past

Unseen and unsung for centuries, these underwater species of coralline algae are providing scientists with an unparalleled new archive of information

Hyman G. Rickover created the U.S. Navy's nuclear program, but remained ambivalent about it throughout his life

Happy(?) Birthday to the Father of the Nuclear Navy

Hyman G. Rickover pushed to nuclearize the Navy’s submarines, but admitted he’d rather ‘sink them all’ to protect humanity

Shell's Polar Pioneer drilling platform

Trending Today

Obama and Trudeau Protect Millions of Acres From Drilling in the Arctic and the Atlantic

But questions remain about the permanency of the act in the arctic

This year, the Great Barrier Reef was found to be hiding another reef beneath it.

Top Eight Ocean Stories That Made Waves in 2016

2016 wasn’t all bad: Stubborn environmental problems were livened up thanks to new solutions, “gee whiz” discoveries and mysterious orbs

Graves of Franklin Expedition members on Beechey Island

New Research

Thumbnail Reveals the Final Days of Franklin Expedition Explorer

A synchrotron micro-x-ray sheds new light on the cause that led to one crew member’s death

How does a bear catch a break around here?

New Research

Decades-Old Chemicals May Be Threatening Polar Bear Fertility, As If They Didn’t Have Enough to Worry About

A new study sheds light on how today’s pollutants could become tomorrow’s threats to wildlife and humans

Cool Finds

Naturally Formed Snowballs Cover Beaches in Siberia

Thousands have washed up on an 11-mile stretch of shore of the Gulf of Ob

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Trending Today

Canada Can’t Figure Out Why the Ocean Floor Is Beeping

A mysterious sound has baffled residents of a far-flung hamlet

Are these kinds of experiences worth the carbon footprint?

Age of Humans

Visiting Melting Glaciers Can Be Profound. But Is It Morally Wrong?

How to weigh the moral costs of your climate change tour

Cool Finds

Awesome New Maps Show Alaska in High-Resolution Detail

The ArcticDEMs are the first set of detailed elevation maps of the Great White North

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