If you are a journalist and would like to speak to any of the team who are on-ice (Dec 2024 - Jan 2025 and Dec 2025 - Jan 2026) please contact us at swaiscomms@gns.cri.nz for more information.
Ross Shelf Reports
We have a breakthrough!
26 December 2025
Our hot water drillers have successfully melted a hole through the ice at Crary Ice Rise (CIR) right down 523 metres to the bedrock below! Not an easy task!
Ross Shelf Reports
A very Crary Christmas
25 December 2025
After weeks of weather delays preventing them getting out to our camp at Crary Ice Rise, on Christmas Eve the team received the best possible present - a Basler flight!
Ross Shelf Reports
Hot water drilling gets underway!
22 December 2025
The team have begun to melt a hole through the ice to make our well.
Ross Shelf Reports
Installing the cellar
21 December 2025
The team at Crary Ice Rise have lowered the ‘cellar’ into a 3m pit dug down into the ice.
Media clippings
Scientists Search for Ancient Climate Clues Beneath Antarctic Ice
17 December 2025
An international team, including researchers from Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, is attempting to drill for mud and rocks holding critical insights about the fate of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
Ross Shelf Reports
Melting snow for hot water drilling
17 December 2025
Since arriving at Crary Ice Rise (CIR) our drill team have made great progress setting up the hot water drilling system inside the big orange drill tent, and assembling the…
Media clippings
Looking for ancient climate clues beneath 500 metres of Antarctic ice
16 December 2025
Durham University geographers are part of international team looking at the possible fate of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet in our warming world.
Media clippings
Antarctic frontier drill hunt for clues to future sea-level rise risk
13 December 2025
It reads like a Hollywood plot – a team crossing crevasse-riddled sea ice to drill for geological evidence that could reveal when the West Antarctic Ice Sheet might collapse, impacting millions.
Media clippings
Race to the ice: A global team’s mission to drill for answer to sea-level rise
12 December 2025
A major international research mission is heading into its third and most ambitious season, as scientists attempt to uncover how 2°C of warming could transform sea levels.
Media clippings
Geologische Bohrmission in der Westantarktis
12 December 2025
Das 2023 gestartete internationale Antarktis-Forschungsbohrprojekt SWAIS2C, an dem auch die BGR beteiligt ist, geht in die dritte Saison. 700 Kilometer von der nächsten antarktischen Forschungsstation entfernt, wurde jetzt ein Camp auf dem Eis eingerichtet.