Topics | Umweltbundesamt

Whales and seals depend on their sense of hearing for survival. Man-made underwater sounds can impair their hearing in both the short and long term, displace them from vital habitats, cause a change in important patterns of behaviour and thereby deteriorate the survival capacity of these marine mammals. read more

When one considers the mile-thick ice shields which cover the Antarctic continent today, it is hard to imagine that Antarctica used to be fertile land and completely free of ice. Some 170 million years ago Antarctica was still part of the Gondwana supercontinent - until it broke up and Antarctica drifted south and slowly began to freeze over. read more

Maps of the Antarctic cannot even come close to reflecting the geographic diversity of the region. Beneath the massive ice layers lie mountains that are kilometres high with deep craggy ravines. As the seasons change, the sea ice forms ever new coastlines, and thus the exact surface area is also in a state of constant change. read more