Ice sheets can retreat up to 600 metres a day during periods of climate warming, 20 times faster than the highest rate of retreat previously measured.

The ice shelves surrounding the Antarctic coastline retreated at speeds of up to 50 metres per day at the end of the last Ice Age, far more rapid than the satellite-derived retreat rates observed today, new research has found.

Newly available archival film has revealed the eastern ice shelf of Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is melting faster than previous estimates, suggesting the shelf may collapse sooner than expected.

In early January, a team of Cambridge scientists set out on an expedition to study and map the Larsen C ice shelf in western Antarctica, and – ice conditions permitting – search for the wreckage of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance. 

A new exhibition has reunited the iconic photography of Herbert Ponting with the watercolours of Edward Wilson – more than a century after the two Antarctic explorers first dreamt up their plan for a joint exhibition. 

A delegation of Cambridge academics, led by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, is attending the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, this week.

Tuesday 17 January 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the first British team reaching the South Pole. Founded as a memorial to Captain Scott and his four companions, the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) is marking the occasion with two days of celebrations.

Cambridge University glaciologist Professor Julian Dowdeswell has spent three years of his life in the polar regions.

The largest coordinated programme of international polar activities in 50 years – International Polar Year (IPY) – kicked off globally on 1 March 2007. Building on a 125-year history of previous polar events in 1882–1883, 1932–1933 and 1957–1958, the aim of IPY is to promote even greater international scientific collaboration to address issues of global importance within the Arctic and Antarctic.