Hot water drilling gets underway!

The team have begun to melt a hole through the ice to make our well. They’re using water from snow melted in the flubbers, warmed through six heaters to reach around 75°C, passed through the hose and out the hot water drill nozzle, which is slowly lowered through the ice to melt the hole.

They’ll melt the hole to around 100m below the ice surface, widen it to make a well cavity, and install a pump.

Once the well pump is in place circulating water up to the flubbers, we’ll have an endless supply of water for drilling out main borehole through the 500m of ice.

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Project updates
Core workshop gets underway

Core workshop gets underway

03 June 2026

We’ve just opened the best present ever – our first sediment core, retrieved from under the West Antarctic Ice Sheet last season.

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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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