September 24 will be the officially designated Sixth International Polar Day. Polar days are held every three months during the two-year-long scientific program focused on the poles, the International Polar Year 2007-2008 (IPY). The days are occasions for schools, science centers, and museums to engage their audiences in learning about the importance of the poles […]

Looking ahead to a time when the “freezing land and seas of the Arctic are likely to be getting hotter in terms of geopolitics,” Durham University in the United Kingdom has dawn up a map that plots boundaries, disputed claims, and potential trouble spots.
Martin Pratt of the university’s International Boundaries Research Unit says the map […]

With articles and lesson plans, the September issue of Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears gets down to the rocks and minerals that lie below all that ice and snow. The web site OneGeology strips all earth’s coverings—plants, soils, water, and man-made structures—away to launch the first-ever collection of digital geological maps of the world.
 Earth and […]

Well inside the Arctic Circle, scientists have found vents in the submerged Mid-Atlantic Ridge spewing out water as hot as 570 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the farthest north anyone has seen black smoker vents — so called because it appears as if dark smoke is billowing from them. In fact, the “smoke” is actually iron- […]

Last fall, Iceland established a committee on climate change to guide the government’s policy on environmental issues. This summer the first report was delivered—with predictions of significant changes. For example,

 Farmers will be able to grow wheat and pumpkins by the middle of the century.
 Fish species, such as cod, haddock flounder, halibut, and sole, that have […]