Drillers fly to Crary Ice Rise

Following some challenges with the weather, our hot water drillers and most of our AIDD (Antarctic Intermediate Depth Drill) team have arrived at our deep-field scientific drilling site at Crary Ice Rise approximately 700km from Scott Base. 

They flew there on a Basler BT-67 (DC-3), a journey over the Ross Ice Shelf taking around three hours. Having set-up sleeping tents, they’re now busy preparing to get our hot water drilling underway. Our Co-Chief Scientists Molly Patterson and Huw Horgan, and the rest of the team will fly out to join them soon.

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Deepest-ever rock core extracted from under Antarctic ice sheet

Deepest-ever rock core extracted from under Antarctic ice sheet

18 February 2026

Analyses will help to reveal how far the West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreated in the past — and what it might do in the future.

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Scientists Drilled Into Antarctic Ice Until They Met Bedrock, Then Got A 228-Meter Sample Of Sediment

Scientists Drilled Into Antarctic Ice Until They Met Bedrock, Then Got A 228-Meter Sample Of Sediment

18 February 2026

Scientists have just got their hands on a 228-metre (748-foot) core sample from the muddy bedrock beneath West Antarctica’s chunky ice sheets. Inside the record-breaking sample, they discovered fossils of marine organisms that date from a time when this area was an open, ice-free ocean.

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