As a "continent devoted to science," Antarctica offers countless opportunities for researchers from around the world to learn about the history and mechanics of the earth. Exploratorium's latest offering highlights the ice-covered continent and the scientists who have and are studying it. The site includes simple descriptions, exceptional photographs, maps, and learning tools. One unique highlight...

Developed and maintained by the US Geological Survey (USGS) and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Atlas of Antarctic Research is intended as "a reference, an information framework, an education tool, and a research aid ... [to] promote greater geographic awareness of the continent and the digital geospatial data that describe it." Atlas parameters include Polar Stereographic...

Paul Ward, the designer of this site, spent over two years in Antarctica as a marine biologist with the British Antarctic Survey. Currently a teacher at a community college in Britain, Ward decided to develop this site to provide information about Antarctica's history, wildlife, and the various explorers who have traveled across the continent. The section featuring Ward's photographs is quite...

The International Centre for Antarctic Information and Research is produces the Gateway Antarctica. This Web server has been set up to provide the international community with information about Antarctica.

Last week, scientists released images from the first high-resolution radar map of Antarctica. Taken over a period of eighteen days in 1997 by a NASA-launched Canadian satellite called RADARSAT, the images have revealed a number of amazing features never seen before. The most important of these is a complex network of ice streams, huge rivers of ice that move ice and snow from the continent's...

In a 1997 collaborative effort, NASA launched the Canadian Space Agency's RADARSAT Satellite which spent eighteen days over the Southern Hemisphere forming the first high-resolution radar maps of the Antarctic. RADARSAT's unusual capabilities make it possible to capture data even through darkness, clouds, and fog. Unveiled to the public on October 18, 1999, the new maps are so clear and detailed...