Saturday 23 December 2023

Our team are on the largest shelf they can think of, and it's nearly Christmas (for those who celebrate). So of course there needs to be an elf!

Since we can’t celebrate with our family and friends at home, we do our best to celebrate together on the ice. And this year we're doing with it an Elf. We are happy to report Elf is joyously helpful here on the Ross Ice Shelf.

What do elves do on the biggest shelf they've ever seen? Everything from gazing at the beauty, to being inducted into driving a dingo, fixing a generator, directing coffee breaks, and trying to go for a dip in the flubber.

More photos of the Elf on the Ross Ice Shelf's adventures are here.

Elf on the Ross Ice Shelf
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Media clippings
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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Media clippings
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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