This is a list of events occurring in Antarctica in 2025. Ongoing Events Climate change in Antarctica Avian influenza subtype H5N1 outbreak in Antarctica
January Early January – Chile's President Gabriel Boric visits the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, becoming the first leader in the Americas to visit the South Pole. Early January – At the Little Dome C site, the European Beyond EPICA project achieves a historic milestone by successfully drilling a 2800m-long ice core, consisting of ice which is more than 1.2 million years old. Early January – The Canadian patrol vessel HMCS Margaret Brooke departs 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. 3 January – The Ukrainian icebreaker Noosfera arrives at the Vernadsky Research Base. 8 January – The French icebreaker L'Astrolabe leaves the Dumont d'Urville station and arrives in Hobart on January 13, completing its 3rd rotation of the season. 13 January – An iceberg named A-84 breaks away from the George VI Ice Shelf. The team aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’s R/V Falkor (too) working in the Bellingshausen Sea changes their research plans to study the newly exposed seafloor and arrives on site on January 25. 14 January – New Zealand's vessel RV Tangaroa leaves Wellington for the expedition TAN2502 to the Ross Sea, the ship's 16th voyage to Antarctica and Southern Ocean. 19 January – Personnel from the Henryk Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station discover the remains of Dennis Bell, a 25-year-old British meteorologist who died in a glacier crevasse on King George Island on 26 July 1959. The remains are later carried to the Falkland Islands aboard RRS Sir David Attenborough and then transported to London. 25 January – The crew of the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s RV Falkor Too films the first confirmed footage of the glacial glass squid (Galiteuthis glacialis). The observation is made at 687 meters in the Bellingshausen Sea. Schmidt Ocean Institute’s RV Falkor (too) completes its first science expedition to Antarctica. Late January – The Ukrainian icebreaker Noosfera is operating in the Southern Ocean around the American Palmer Station with U.S. researchers on board, supporting marine research on behalf of the U.S. National Science Foundation. Late January – Two Czech research expeditions reach Antarctica. One team of six people arrives at the Eco-Nelson station on Nelson island and another of fourteen people arrives at the Mendel Polar Station on James Ross Island. They later confirm the presence of avian influenza in dead birds (Stercorarius maccormicki) near the Mendel station. Late January – A Brazilian Antarctic circumnavigation expedition ends in January 2025 after covering 29,000 km since November 2024.
February Early February – Researchers on board the Spanish oceanographic ship RV Sarmiento de Gamboa observe massive columns of methane emerging from the Antarctic seabed. The CSIC vessel is cruising the Antarctic seas for almost a month and its mission ends on February 7. 6 February – The French icebreaker L'Astrolabe returns to Hobart after its 4th rotation of the season. 13 February A new map of South Orkney Islands published by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) for the first time in 40 years. A 60-year-old man suffers a heart attack at McMurdo Station. He is 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 carries out nine medical evacuations during its Antarctica support season from October 2024 to February 2025. 15 February – An expedition of University of Cape Town scientists from the Polar Engineering Research Group (PERG) return to South Africa after studying the Fimbul Ice Shelf since December 2024. 17 February– The South African S. A. Agulhas II returns to Cape Town following its annual supply and relief voyage to the SANAE IV base. 20 February – New Zealand's vessel RV Tangaroa returns to Wellington after the expedition TAN2502 to the Ross Sea. 27 February – Researchers at the South African Sanae IV station report a violent incident among the crew. Late February – Scientific expedition led by the Spanish CSIC aboard the Antarctic sailing vessel Australis confirms 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. Late February – The U.S. 109th Airlift Wing concluds the 2024-25 Antarctic science support season using its ski-equipped LC-130 Hercules aircraft. Late February – Japan's icebreaker Shirase makes a port call at Fremantle Harbour, Australia to reload supplies and replace personnel between its missions to Antarctica. On February 26, the vessel departs for Antarctica again. February – New scientific laboratory building at the Bulgarian Antarctic Base on Livingston Island, designed by architect Penka Stancheva, inaugurated in February.
March
Early March – The giant iceberg A23a runs aground near South Georgia. Australia's icebreaker, RSV Nuyina leaves Hobart, heading to Antarctica on its first dedicated marine science mission, the "Denman Marine Voyage" Early March – The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) installs and activates two solar photovoltaic and energy storage systems on Bird Island research station and at Sky Blu runway in Eastern Ellsworth land. 1 March The Canadian patrol vessel HMCS Margaret Brooke reaches Antarctica and stoppes by Deception Island. The Italian icebreaker RV Laura Bassi returns 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). The U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Star departs Antarctica after the annual research and resupply mission Operation Deep Freeze 2025. 9 March – The crew of the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s RV Falkor Too are the first to film the colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) in its natural environment. The observation is made using the ROV SuBastian at a depth of 600 meters near the South Sandwich Islands. 10 March – The most detailed map yet of the landscape beneath Antarctica's ice sheet, known as Bedmap3, published by a team led from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in the journal Scientific Data. 14 March – The Argentine Navy icebreaker ARA Bahia Agradable rescues the Chilean supply vessel Betanzos that has lost power off Livingston Island. 15 March – The Ukrainian icebreaker Noosfera arrives at the Vernadsky Research Base, delivering the 30th Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition. 16 March The first game of Gaelic football to ever be played on Antarctica takes place at the BAS Rothera Research Station on St Patrick's weekend. The Australian icebreaker RSV Nuyina arrives near the Denman Glacier and during the following week the researchers focus on a CTD transect across the front of the Denman Glacier tongue. 19 March – The 1.2-million-years-old Beyond EPICA ice samples leave Antarctica aboard the Italian icebreaker RV Laura Bassi. 20 March – The Ukrainian icebreaker Noosfera deploys six oceanographic Argo buoys into Antarctic waters, the first such operation for Ukraine. 21 March – China's 41st Antarctic expedition team sets sail from New Zealand's Lyttelton Harbor for the Ross Sea aboard the icebreaker Xue Long 2. 23 March – The Ukrainian icebreaker Noosfera leaves Antarctica for Punta Arenas, Chile with the departing crew of the 29th Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition and a seasonal crew on board. Late March – The snow coach Ivan the Terra Bus decommissioned after 30 years of service at the McMurdo Station, and in March 2025, it is shipped to Christchurch, New Zealand. Late March – The 11th Antarctic expedition of Colombia, counting 34 researchers from seven institutions, concludes after three months of research on the Antarctic Peninsula. Late March – NASA and NSIDC reports 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. Late March – A rare all-black melanistic gentoo penguin chick spotted on Rongé Island. Late March – The MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite observes 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 is unusually persistent this year.
April 3 April – Researchers aboard the RSV Nuyina report on their collection of marine invertebrates in the vicinity of the Denman Glacier, including a pteropod which subsequently lays eggs, allowing the first direct observation of pteropod egg development. 11 April – The 33rd Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition concludes when the naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii RSV 421 arrives in Varna after its third 5-month mission to the Southern Ocean and Antarctica. 15 April – Daily Maverick reports on the growing danger of overfishing of Antarctic krill. Late April – A rare 'pack ice' killer whale (Type B1) filmed by researchers aboard the Antarctic sailing vessel Australis near the Antarctic Peninsula. Late April – Researchers of the 30th Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition report a rare observation of a vagrant western cattle egret near the Vernadsky Research Base.
May 1 May – New Zealand announces a renewal of Government investment to extend the Antarctic Science Platform's research into Climate Change in Antarctica for another seven years. 2 May – There is a magnitude 7.4 earthquake in the Drake Passage at 9 am local time. Chilean authorities mandate the evacuation of coastal areas in the Magallanes region and the Chilean Antarctic Territory due to tsunami threats but cancel the evacuation orders later in the afternoon after no serious damage to infrastructure or harm to people are reported. 3 May – The MODIS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite captures 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 has 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. 9 May The Canadian Arctic and offshore patrol vessel HMCS Margaret Brooke arrives back in Halifax after completing its four-month mission to Antarctica. The Denman Marine Voyage concludes when the Australian icebreaker RSV Nuyina returns to Hobart after spending two months near the Shackleton Ice Shelf. This was the vessel's first dedicated marine science voyage. 14 May – Newsweek reports that the UK House of Commons Environment Audit Committee discussed evidence that Russia has discovered large oil deposits of around 511 billion barrels in the Weddell Sea, which falls under the UK's Antarctic territory. Late May – The Arête Glacier Initiative is 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. Late May – The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) signs an agreement with an industry consortium to upgrade Davis research station. The works will start in November 2026 with the installation of a reverse osmosis plant and later continue with the construction of a new utilities building including the main powerhouse and various workshops.
June 20 June – Midwinter Day celebrated.