To look forward, we need to look back.
SWAIS2C is seeking critical geological records from the sediment deep below the Ross Ice Shelf, to determine how much the West Antarctic Ice Sheet melted during past times when the climate was warmer than present. This information will help us forecast and prepare for future sea-level rise.
We know we must adapt to at least 30 cm (12 inches) of sea-level rise over the coming decades. But depending on future carbon dioxide emissions, this could be much more. SWAIS2C will use the geological record of the past to help us ‘see’ those possible futures.
In the last interglacial period, ~125,000 years ago, global temperatures were 1–1.5°C warmer than pre-industrial times, similar to the temperatures we're tracking towards in our very near future if we don't curb greenhouse gas emissions. Global sea level may have been 6–9 metres (20–30 feet) higher due to Greenland and Antarctic ice sheet melt.
The United Nations Paris Agreement sets a target to limit global warming to 1.5°C, and well below 2°C. But will this save the Ross Ice Shelf and limit Antarctic ice sheet melt? This is the key question that SWAIS2C aims to answer.
To do so, we need geological records from the centre of West Antarctica. This will help scientists better project the amount of future sea-level rise to expect in our warming climate.
SWAIS2C researchers, engineers, and drillers will recover key environmental information from the ice and sediment at two different sites on the Ross Ice Shelf.
No one has ever drilled deep into the Antarctic seabed at a location so far from a major base and so close to the centre of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. At Kamb Ice Stream (KIS3), we will drill through a slab of floating ice nearly 600 metres (1,970 feet) thick.
Underneath this ice is sea, but we will keep on drilling until we reach the seafloor to see what the sediment we find there can tell us.
At the second site, Crary Ice Rise (CIR), the ice sits on the seafloor and is more than 500 metres (1,640 feet) thick. Here we will drill through ice and directly into the bedrock to recover sediment cores.
Drilling at these different sites allows us to compare how the ice shelf behaves in different temperatures.
The resulting geological records will help reveal how sensitive the Ross Ice Shelf and West Antarctic Ice Sheet are to past warming similar to the 1.5 to 2°C (2.7° to 3.5°F) target set in the Paris Agreement.
Our first scientific expedition of discovery took place over the summer of 2023/2024 at KIS3, followed by a second season at KIS3 in 2024/2025.
We are currently in the field for our third season, at CIR. You can read daily reports from the camp here.
Latest news & field reports
Drilling wraps up at Crary Ice Rise
We’ve completed drilling at Crary Ice Rise with a whopping 228 metres of sediment core, exceeding our target of 200 metres!
200 metres of sediment core!
Third time’s a charm - we have successfully drilled 200 metres of sediment core from beneath the ice sheet at Crary Ice Rise!
Relevelling the rig
The team had to pause to relevel the Antarctic Intermediate Depth Drill rig.
100 metres of sediment core!
We’ve passed a huge milestone – we’ve now retrieved more than 100 metres of sediment core, so we are over halfway towards our target of 200 metres.
Drilling through the storm
Today a storm swept through the camp, with high winds of 35 kts gusting to 45 kts blowing snow and poor visibility for many hours.
Running pipe
After several days of constant core coming up, our drillers had a challenge down the hole, so they had to pull out the drill pipe, sort the issue, and run…
Last, but not least
The third and final group of our on-ice team have made it to Crary Ice Rise – later than planned due to the weather challenges we’ve battled with this year.
Core on deck!
We have successfully retrieved sediment core from beneath 523 m of ice at Crary Ice Rise, rotary coring with our custom-designed Antarctic Intermediate Depth Drill.
'Riser' to the challenge
We’ve risen to the Antarctic drilling challenge – our riser is in, connecting the ‘Big Rig’ at the surface of the ice to the bedrock 523m below.
Setting up for microbiology and core curation
While our drillers are hard at work moving forward towards geological drilling, our newly arrived science team are working at lightning speed to get prepared for when we have our…
We have a breakthrough!
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!
A very Crary Christmas
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!