Text: Sarah Perrin/EPFL Photos: Sharif Mirshak, Parafilms/EPFL. Saturday, 10 pm: a powerful tugboat pulls the Akademik Trehsnikov out of the Punta Arenas port. The Russian vessel is off to sea for the third and final leg of the ACE expedition, headed for Cape Town with two stops and several sampling […]

Texte and photos: Sarah Perrin, EPFL The ACE expedition has arrived in Chile. This marks the end of its second leg, during which the researchers made a stop on Antarctica, explored little-known ecosystems using a remote-controlled submersible and visited relatively uncharted territory. The third leg of the expedition, featuring stops […]

The Akademik Treshnikov arrived in Punta Arenas on Wednesday February 22, after an amazing leg between Australia and Chile. The Russian ship completed the second of the three legs of the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE). The ship will head back to sea on Saturday February 25th  for the last part […]

ACE terrestrial biodiversity program Written by Ian Hogg, University of Waikato Photos: Ian Hogg & Noé Sardet The largest year-round animals to inhabit the Antarctic continent are springtails (primitive insect-like arthropods) and mites – all less than 1.5 mm. The also share the continent with other smaller invertebrate animals including […]

By Eric Hoesli, EPFL professor Par Eric Hoesli, professeur à l’EPFL What’s his passion? Mushrooms. Not what you’d expect from a sailor. Valeri Mikhailovitch  Chelukhov knows of a secret spot, a little island in the wetlands south of Arkhangelsk that takes a two-hour train ride and four-hour walk to reach […]

By Christian de Marliave, ACE expedition head of logistics/directeur logistique de l’expédition ACE. Great-circle navigation refers to the shortest distance between two points on the globe. Since we’re sailing on a sphere, this is rarely a straight line. The shortest distance between Scott Island and Peter I Island runs near […]

By Eric Hoesli, EPFL professor Par Eric Hoesli, professeur à l’EPFL From the ship’s bridge, he can be heard quickly climbing the steps. Everyone is at their post when the captain arrives. Dmitri Karpenko – who is deferentially referred to on board by his patronymic, Dmitri Alexandrovich – occupies the […]

Bastien Confino (RTS) spoke with Guillaume Massé, a geochemist at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Université Laval in Quebec. Photos by Noé Sardet (Parafilms, EPFL). French below… – Now that we are nearing this Glacier, a place you know well. How do you feel? Even when […]

by Noé Sardet, Parafilms, EPFL Par Noé Sardet, Parafilms, EPFL The first dive beneath the Mertz Glacier was a real challenge. Getting under the glacier would be more difficult than expected. A huge underwater ice cavern stretches below the glacier’s tongue. The whole team was surprised to discover this massive […]