When the photographer Enzo Barracco decided to mount a photographic expedition to Antarctica, inspired by the example of Sir Ernest Shackleton, he had much more than simple cold to contend with. As the world's last empty continent, the snowy lands of the South Pole are a challenge for the most seasoned explorer, with their merciless winds, treacherous seas and vast sheets of ice. Even to arrive on the continent itself involves a perilous journey by sea from southern Argentina through the notoriously rough Drake Passage. THE NOISE OF ICE: ANTARCTICA explores what drove Barracco to embark on his journey, and tells the story of the expedition in words and astonishing photographs, all of them captured during the trip and many obtained in hazardous conditions. In his gripping text, Barracco explains how even his journey to Antarctica itself was undertaken with the essential help of an ice pilot, to spot and avoid icebergs that ship's radar can miss. He tells of how the waves on that first journey threw him to the deck and brought home how hostile such an environment is, and of his constant battle to protect his photographic equipment and all-important memory cards from the extreme cold. Most importantly, he explains that in capturing these beautiful landscapes, his intention is to remind us all of the precarious position in which this part of the world finds itself. As the explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes puts it in his foreword to THE NOISE OF ICE, "witnessed by only a few, Antarctica should be enjoyed by many and protected by all".

An alphabetical encyclopedia of Antarctica, including entires on history, weather, geology, wildlife, scientific research and tourism.

The Antarctic is the last vast terrestrial frontier. Just over a century ago, no one had ever seen the South Pole. Today odd machines and adventure skiers from many nations converge there every summer, arriving from numerous starting points on the Antarctic coast and returning some other way. But not until very recently has anyone completed a roundtrip from McMurdo Station, the U.S. support hub on the continental coast. The last man to try that perished in 1912. The valuable surface route from McMurdo remained elusive until John H. Wright and his crew finished the job in 2006. Blazing Ice is the story of the team of Americans who forged a thousand-mile transcontinental ôhaul routeö across Antarctica. For decades airplanes from McMurdo Station supplied the South Pole. A safe and repeatable surface haul route would have been cheaper and more environmentally benign than airlift, but the technology was not available until 2000. As Wright reveals in this gripping narrative, the hazards of Antarctic terrain and weather were as daunting for twenty-firstcentury pioneers as they were for NorwayÆs Roald Amundsen and EnglandÆs Robert Falcon Scott when they raced to be first to the South Pole in 1911û1912. Wright and his team faced deadly hidden crevasses, vast snow swamps, the Transantarctic Mountains, badlands of weird windsculpted ice, and the high Polar Plateau. Blazing Ice will appeal to Antarctic aficionados, conservationists, and adventure readers of all stripes.

A riveting, urgent account of the explorers and scientists racing to understand the rapidly melting ice sheet in Greenland, a dramatic harbinger of climate change “Jon Gertner takes readers to spots few journalists or even explorers have visited. The result is a gripping and important book.”—Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sixth Extinction NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • The Christian Science Monitor • Library Journal Greenland: a remote, mysterious island five times the size of California but with a population of just 56,000. The ice sheet that covers it is 700 miles wide and 1,500 miles long, and is composed of nearly three quadrillion tons of ice. For the last 150 years, explorers and scientists have sought to understand Greenland—at first hoping that it would serve as a gateway to the North Pole, and later coming to realize that it contained essential information about our climate. Locked within this vast and frozen white desert are some of the most profound secrets about our planet and its future. Greenland’s ice doesn’t just tell us where we’ve been. More urgently, it tells us where we’re headed. In The Ice at the End of the World, Jon Gertner explains how Greenland has evolved from one of earth’s last frontiers to its largest scientific laboratory. The history of Greenland’s ice begins with the explorers who arrived here at the turn of the twentieth century—first on foot, then on skis, then on crude, motorized sleds—and embarked on grueling expeditions that took as long as a year and often ended in frostbitten tragedy. Their original goal was simple: to conquer Greenland’s seemingly infinite interior. Yet their efforts eventually gave way to scientists who built lonely encampments out on the ice and began drilling—one mile, two miles down. Their aim was to pull up ice cores that could reveal the deepest mysteries of earth’s past, going back hundreds of thousands of years. Today, scientists from all over the world are deploying every technological tool available to uncover the secrets of this frozen island before it’s too late. As Greenland’s ice melts and runs off into the sea, it not only threatens to affect hundreds of millions of people who live in coastal areas. It will also have drastic effects on ocean currents, weather systems, economies, and migration patterns. Gertner chronicles the unfathomable hardships, amazing discoveries, and scientific achievements of the Arctic’s explorers and researchers with a transporting, deeply intelligent style—and a keen sense of what this work means for the rest of us. The melting ice sheet in Greenland is, in a way, an analog for time. It contains the past. It reflects the present. It can also tell us how much time we might have left.

This Is An Updated And Enlarged Edition Of The Earlier Book Citadel Of Ice By The Same Author.The Book Vividly Describes Indias Epoch-Making, Daring Scientific Adventure In The Icy Continent Of Antarctica; It Narrates The Story Of A Group Of 12 Scientists And Soldiers, Who Helped To Establish The First Ever Over-Wintering Indian Base, Dakshin Gangotri On A Floating Ice Shelf In Antarctica.Beginning With A Description Of The Voyage To Antarctica Through The Roaring Forties, Icebergs, Pack Ice And Fast Sea Ice, The Book Recounts The Painstaking Process Of Selecting A Construction Site For Dakshin Gangotri On A 400M Thick Continental Ice Shelf And The Construction Of The Station Right From Its Foundation To The Commissioning Of The Life-Support Systems.The Book Then Describes The Hair-Raising Incidents Of The Long Antarctic Blizzards Where The Wind Many A Time Touched Over 250Km/H With Snow Flying All Around, Which Threatened The Very Existence Of The Base. It Highlights The Ardous Struggles Of Psychological And Biological Adjustment With The Mid-Night Sun And Polar Night With The Temperature Going Down To As Low As -60°C.The Book Also Highlights The Beauty Of The Aurora Australis, Polar Shadows, Mirage Effects And Other Optical Illusions. Presents An Intriguing Account Of The Expeditions Through The Polar Ice Cap With Deep Crevasses, Flowing Rivers And Treacherous Lakes, Glaciers Andnunataks.The Teams Gallant Efforts Put India On The World Map Amongst The Scientifically-Advanced Nations. The Nation Rewarded Theteams Achievement By Awarding One Kirti Chakra, Two Shaurya Chakras, Five Sena Medals And One Vishishtha Sewa Medal, Which Is The Highest Number Of National Awards Won By Any National Mission.This Book Now Includes A Vivid Account Of The Later Expeditions To Antarctica Alongwith Their Contribution To Indian Scientific Research.The Book, Written By The Leader Of The Team With A Foreword By Padma Vibhushan Dr. S.Z. Qasim, Former Member, Planning Commission And Secretary, Department Of Ocean Development, Is Illustrated With Over 45 Coloured Photographs And Maps.

At the age of 34, Felicity Aston became the first woman to cross Antarctica alone. Frozen into her facemask, she battled desperate weather and raced to reach the coast before the last flight out. This gripping and inspirational account shows what you can achieve when you grit your teeth and decide just to get through today in one piece.