A national touring exhibition of rare Antarctic artefacts has been announced to mark 100 years of achievement on the icy continent since the first Australasian Antarctic Expedition was led by Sir Douglas Mawson in 1911–14. Traversing Antarctica: the Australian Experience has opened at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery today and will tour nationally until 2014.

By Associated Press, Published: December 8 TOKYO — Japan is spending 2.3 billion yen ($29 million) from its supplementary budget for tsunami reconstruction to fund the country’s annual whaling hunt in the Antarctic Ocean, a fisheries official confirmed Thursday. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/japan-funding-annual-antarctic-whale-hunt-with-money-from-disaster-reconstruction-budget/2011/12/08/gIQAPttfeO_story.html

As Christmas approaches, the Antarctic cruise season is a month old and taking its familiar course. There have been a few rough crossing of the Drake Passage, and not only was the Lemaire Channel block for the first few voyages venturing south but there were even problems getting into Cuverville Island. Clipper Adventurer has problems […]

(Reuters) – A giant iceberg has forced an Australian Antarctic team to abandon a summer pilgrimage to the base built by the nation’s most famous Antarctic explorer, Douglas Mawson, upsetting planned celebrations for the centenary of Mawson’s expedition. The iceberg, known as B9B and about 100 km (60 miles) long, has drifted into Commonwealth Bay […]

A Russian-flagged fishing boat, in distress after hitting an iceberg in Antarctica’s Ross Sea, can be saved and will probably resume fishing, its US owner says. But Andrey Kulish of San Diego’s Sedna Industries Inc says the 23-year-old Sparta needed assistance from boats heading toward it. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6150088/Fishing-boat-hits-iceberg-in-Southern-Ocean

The Polar Museum is part of the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University.  The Polar Museum is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10.00am to 4.00pm The miserable deaths suffered by Scott and his companions on their way back from the South Pole is one of the most terrible stories in British history. It is told at […]

Dozens of scientists and explorers have joined the Norwegian prime minister to mark 100 years since Roald Amundsen led the first expedition to the south pole. At the pole, PM Jens Stoltenberg paid tribute to “one of the most outstanding achievements of mankind”. But bad weather has obstructed several explorers who had hoped to reach […]

Viewers of the BBC’s Frozen Planet were treated to the first ever footage of a brinicle, a deadly finger of ice that kills everything in its path. Footage below http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM6sDEtgPx0

Today, some intrepid travelers still make it to Earth’s southernmost point, though they’re only a small fraction of the approximately 30,000 people who visit Antarctica each year, according to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/travelnews/2011/11/111214-amundsen-scott-norway-antarctica-explorers-science-history-south-pole-anniversary/

Radar imaging has revealed what Antarctica would really look like if it wasn’t covered in ice. The southern hemisphere’s polar region may look fairly flat, but there are actually 9,000ft-high mountains lurking beneath ice that in places is 12,000ft thick. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2070635/What-Antarctica-look-like-naked–radar-mapping-shows-mountainous-Alps.html#ixzz1gXwBfy34