ANTARCTICA

Emperor penguin released at sea 20 days after waddling onto Australian beach

Lost Emperor Penguin Who Washed Up in Australia Returns Home

A penguin named Gus captured people’s hearts when he appeared on an Australian beach not long ago. Now he’s ready to go back home.

Sir Ernest Shackleton stands on the deck of the ‘Quest’ before it left for Antarctica.

The ‘Quest,’ Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Last Ship, Has Been Found Off Eastern Canada

The ‘Quest’ was the ship on which Sir Ernest Shackleton carried out his final, uncompleted voyage to Antarctica.

13 People Who Operated on Themselves

From the Founding Father who stuck whalebone where he shouldn’t have to the only known woman to have given herself a C-section.

Frost Bite: When Sub-Zero Temperatures Shattered an Antarctic Explorer’s Teeth

“Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised,” he later wrote.

“Refreshingly Mad”: 10 Facts About the First Pole-to-Pole Journey Around the World

Ginnie and Ranulph Fiennes's Transglobe Expedition circled the globe—just not the normal way.

8 Facts About Polar Explorer Roald Amundsen

Roald Amundsen was the first person to reach the South Pole—and that's not all.

Speech Bubble: How Scientists Working in Antarctica Inadvertently Developed a New Accent

A 2019 study of scientists over-wintering in Antarctica revealed subtle but measurable changes in the participants’ speech.

Tourists get up close and personal with Antarctica's gentoo penguins.

Antarctica's Tourists Are Turning into Citizen Scientists to Clean Up the Continent

Scientists and cruise operators are fighting the impacts of tourism in Antarctica—with the help of tourists themselves.

The still-intact wheel of Shackleton's ill-fated vessel.

Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 'Endurance' Shipwreck Has Been Found After More Than a Century

Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated ‘Endurance’ sunk 107 years ago near Antarctica, kicking off one of the most thrilling survival stories of all time.

An artist’s interpretation of the birth of a baby mosasaur.

This Football-Sized Fossil Egg is the First Found in Antarctica, and It May Have Belonged to a Mosasaur

The 68-million-year-old fossil egg’s mystery mother may have been one of the fiercest marine predators from the Late Cretaceous period.

Penguin Poop Makes So Much Laughing Gas That Scientists Studying It Go ‘Completely Cuckoo’

When it breaks down, poop from king penguins releases nitrous oxide—a gas that affects both the environment and the scientists who study it.

Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica

Death at the South Pole: The Mystery of Antarctica's Unsolved Poisoning Case

In 2000, Rodney Marks died suddenly from methanol poisoning in a remote research station in Antarctica. Nearly 20 years later, the circumstances surrounding his death remain a mystery.

Where Does All the Human Poop in Antarctica End Up?

Antarctica is one of the last pristine places on Earth. The only problem? The scientists and tourists who travel there keep defecating.

Listen to the Eerie Song of Antarctica's Largest Ice Shelf

The sound was impossible to hear until recently.

There Could Be Hundreds of Frozen Corpses Buried Beneath Antarctica's Snow and Ice

Mummified penguins occasionally turn up, too.

SnowSwan, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 3.0

Want to Live in Antarctica? Better Schedule an Appendectomy

Don't expect emergency surgery in Villa Las Estrellas.

Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1916

A Previously Unknown Diary From the Doomed Endurance Just Showed Up on Antiques Roadshow

It was stored under a TV for 40 years.

Employees at Antarctica's McMurdo Station Are Throwing a Party for Pride Month

You could call it a Pride march with the penguins.

Scientists Have Discovered Massive Canyons Beneath Antarctica's Ice Sheets

Data from the South Pole may show how the continent will respond to climate change.

Rachael Herman, Louisiana State University, © Stony Brook University

Poop Visible From Space Helped Scientists Find a Remote 'Supercolony' of Penguins

Scientists just discovered 1.5 million penguins living on a chain of remote Antarctic islands, thanks to satellite images of their telltale poop.

King Penguin Populations Could Shrink By 70 Percent in 80 Years, Thanks to Climate Change

A new study shows the species is in serious trouble.

The Plucky Teenage Stowaway Aboard the First American Expedition to Antarctica

Read an excerpt from 'The Stowaway,' the amazing story of Billy Gawronski, who was determined to join Richard E. Byrd's 1928 expedition—no matter how many times he had to sneak aboard.

Mount Jackson Loses Spot as UK's Tallest Mountain After Satellite Reveals Measurement Error

Old measurements were off by over 1200 feet.

New Images of the Massive Iceberg That Broke Off From Antarctica This Summer

Check out just how massive iceberg A-68, which made its long-expected break from the Larsen C ice shelf this summer, looks from the air.