2025 in Antarctica

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Decades:	2000s 2010s 2020s
See also:	Other events of 2025 Timeline of Antarctic history

This is a list of events occurring in Antarctica in 2025.

Bedmap3: a fine grained map of Antarctica beneath the ice, published in 2025

Events

Ongoing

• Climate change in Antarctica
• Avian influenza subtype H5N1 outbreak in Antarctica

January

• Chile's President Gabriel Boric visited the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, becoming the first leader in the Americas to visit the South Pole.
• At the Little Dome C site, the European Beyond EPICA project has achieved a historic milestone by successfully drilling a 2800m-long ice core, consisting of ice which is more than 1.2 million years old.
• On January 3, the Ukrainian icebreaker Noosfera has arrived at the Vernadsky Research Base.
• On January 8, the French icebreaker L’Astrolabe has left the Dumont d’Urville station and arrived in Hobart on January 13, completing its 3rd rotation of the season.
• The Canadian patrol vessel HMCS Margaret Brooke has departed Halifax on Operation PROJECTION 2025. This is the first-ever Antarctic visit by a Canadian military vessel. The mission is supporting a team of 15 Canadian climate scientists.
• On January 13, 2025, an iceberg named A-84 broke away from the George VI Ice Shelf. The team aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’s R/V Falkor (too) working in the Bellingshausen Sea changed their research plans to study the newly exposed seafloor and arrivet on site on January 25.
• On January 14, New Zealand's vessel RV Tangaroa left Wellington for the expedition TAN2502 to the Ross Sea, the ship’s 16th voyage to Antarctica and Southern Ocean.
• On January 25, the crew of the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s RV Falkor Too filmed the first confirmed footage of the glacial glass squid (Galiteuthis glacialis). The observation was made at 687 meters in the Bellingshausen Sea.
• Schmidt Ocean Institute’s RV Falkor (too) has completed its first science expedition to Antarctica.
• The Ukrainian icebreaker Noosfera has been operating in the Southern Ocean around the American Palmer Station with U.S. researcher on board, supporting marine research on behalf of the U.S. National Science Foundation.
• Two Czech research expeditions reached Antarctica. One team of six people arrived at the Eco-Nelson station on Nelson island and another of 14 people arrived at the Mendel Polar Station on James Ross Island. They later confirmed the presence of avian influenza in dead birds (Stercorarius maccormicki) near the Mendel station.
• A Brazilian Antarctic circumnavigation expedition ended in January 2025 after covering 29,000 km since November 2024.

February

• A new map of South Orkney Islands has been published by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) for the first time in 40 years.
• On February 6, the French icebreaker L’Astrolabe has returned to Hobart after its 4th rotation of the season.
• Researchers on board the spanish oceanographic ship RV Sarmiento de Gamboa have observed massive columns of methane emerging from the Antarctic seabed. The CSIC vessel has been cruising the Antarctic seas for almost a month and its mission ended on February 7.
• On February 13, a 60-year-old man suffered a heart attack at McMurdo Station. He was saved by first responders from the U.S. Air National Guard, McMurdo’s fire department, and the National Science Foundation and later evacuated to Christchurch, New Zealand using a U.S. Air Force LC-130 aircraft of the New York Air National Guard’s 109th Airlift Wing. This unit carried out nine medical evacuations during its Antarctica support season from October 2024 to February 2025.
• On February 15, an expedition of University of Cape Town scientists from the Polar Engineering Research Group (PERG) returned to South Africa after studying the Fimbul Ice Shelf since December 2024.
• On February 17, the South African S. A. Agulhas II returned to Cape Town following its annual supply and relief voyage to the SANAE IV base.
• On February 20, New Zealand's vessel RV Tangaroa returned to Wellington after the expedition TAN2502 to the Ross Sea.
• On February 27, researchers at the South African Sanae IV station reported a violent incident among the crew.
• Scientific expedition led by the Spanish CSIC aboard the Antarctic sailing vessel Australis has confirmed the presence of the avian influenza virus (HPAI H5N1) on islands in the Weddell Sea. The positive samples came from nine bird (mostly skuas) and four seal species.
• The U.S. 109th Airlift Wing concluded the 2024-25 Antarctic science support season using its ski-equipped LC-130 Hercules aircraft.
• Japan's icebreaker Shirase has made a port call at Fremantle Harbour, Australia to reload supplies and replace personnel between its missions to Antarctica. On February 26, the vessel departed for Antarctica again.

March

• On March 1, the Canadian patrol vessel HMCS Margaret Brooke reached Antarctica and stopped by Deception Island.
• On March 1, the Italian icebreaker RV Laura Bassi returned to the port of Lyttelton in New Zealand, concluding the 40th scientific expedition to Antarctica as part of the National Programme for Research in Antarctica (PNRA).
• On March 4, The U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Star departed Antarctica after the annual research and resupply mission Operation Deep Freeze 2025.
• The giant iceberg A23a has run aground near South Georgia.
• Australia’s icebreaker, RSV Nuyina has left Hobart, heading to Antarctica on its first dedicated marine science mission, the "Denman Marine Voyage"
• The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) has installed and activated two solar photovoltaic and energy storage systems on Bird Island research station and at Sky Blu runway in Eastern Ellsworth land.
• On March 9, the crew of the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s RV Falkor Too were the first to film the colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) in its natural environment. The observation was made using the ROV SuBastian at a depth of 600 meters near the South Sandwich Islands.
• On March 10, the most detailed map yet of the landscape beneath Antarctica’s ice sheet, known as Bedmap3, has been published by a team led from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in the journal Scientific Data.
• The 1.2-million-years-old Beyond EPICA ice samples left Antarctica aboard the Italian icebreaker RV Laura Bassi.
• On March 14, the Argentine Navy icebreaker ARA Bahia Agradable rescued the Chilean supply vessel Betanzos that had lost power off Livingston Island.
• On March 15, the Ukrainian icebreaker Noosfera arrived at the Vernadsky Research Base, delivering the 30th Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition.
• The first game of Gaelic football to ever be played on Antarctica took place at the BAS Rothera Research Station on St Patrick’s weekend (March 15/16).
• On the weekend of March 15/16, the Australian icebreaker RSV Nuyina has arrived near the Denman Glacier and during the following week the researchers focused on a CTD transect across the front of the Denman Glacier tongue.
• The Ukrainian icebreaker Noosfera has deployed six oceanographic Argo buoys into Antarctic waters, the first such operation for Ukraine.
• On March 21, China's 41st Antarctic expedition team set sail from New Zealand's Lyttelton Harbor for the Ross Sea aboard the icebreaker Xue Long 2.
• On March 23, the Ukrainian icebreaker Noosfera left Antarctica for Punta Arenas, Chile with the departing crew of the 29th Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition and a seasonal crew on board.
• The snow coach Ivan the Terra Bus was decommissioned after 30 years of service at the McMurdo Station, and in March 2025, it was shipped to Christchurch, New Zealand.
• The 11th Antarctic expedition of Colombia, counting 34 researchers from seven institutions, concluded after three months of research on the Antarctic Peninsula.
• NASA and NSIDC reported that in 2025, summer sea ice extent around Antarctica tied for the 2nd-lowest minimum ever recorded in the 47-year record of satellite measurements.
• A rare all-black melanistic gentoo penguin chick has been spotted on Rongé Island.
• In late March, The MODIS instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite observed new sea ice forming, as well as surviving multi-year ice, near the fronts of Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers in the Amundsen sea. Sea ice in this area was unusually persistent this year.

April

• Researchers aboard the RSV Nuyina reported on their collection of marine invertebrates in the vicinity of the Denman Glacier, including a pteropod which subsequently laid eggs, allowing the first direct observation of pteropod egg development.
• On April 11, the 33rd Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition concluded when the naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii RSV 421 arrived in Varna after its third 5-month mission to the Southern Ocean and Antarctica.
• A rare 'pack ice' killer whale (Type B1) has been filmed by researchers aboard the Antarctic sailing vessel Australis near the Antarctic Peninsula.
• Daily Maverick reported on the growing danger of overfishing of Antarctic krill.
• Researchers of the 30th Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition reported a rare observation of a vagrant western cattle egret near the Vernadsky Research Base.

May

• On 1 May, New Zealand announced a renewal of Government investment to extend the Antarctic Science Platform's research into Climate Change in Antarctica for another seven years.
• On 2 May, there was a magnitude 7.4 earthquake in the Drake Passage at 9 am local time (2025 Drake Passage earthquake). Chilean authorities mandated the evacuation of coastal areas in the Magallanes region and the Chilean Antarctic Territory due to tsunami threats but canceled the evacuation orders later in the afternoon after no serious damage to infrastructure or harm to people were reported.
• On 3 May, the MODIS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite captured an image of the A-23a iceberg that has remained at a standstill less than 100 kilometers off South Georgia since early March 2025. The new image shows that the iceberg's surface area has declined substantially in preceding two months. It lost more than 360 square kilometers between 6 March and 3 May and its northern side is showing signs of edge wasting, a type of iceberg breakup where small pieces calve from many places along its edge.
• On 9 May, the Canadian Arctic and offshore patrol vessel HMCS Margaret Brooke arrived back in Halifax after completing its four month mission to Antarctica.
• On 9 May, the Denman Marine Voyage concluded when the Australian icebreaker RSV Nuyina returned to Hobart after spending two months near the Shackleton Ice Shelf. This was the vessel's first dedicated marine science voyage.
• The Arête Glacier Initiative was launched. This is a non-profit research organization aimed at coordinating and funding projects for better forecast and mitigation of sea-level rise caused by ice loss, especially focused on the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica.

Predicted and scheduled events

• 20 June - Midwinter Day will be celebrated.
• 1 December - Antarctica Day will be celebrated.

See also

• Southern Ocean
• South Pole
• Antarctic ice sheet