SWAIS2C

We’ve wrapped up drilling at Crary Ice Rise with 228m of sediment core, an unprecedented record of West Antarctic Ice Sheet history stretching millions of years. Initial observations indicate the core includes periods of environmental change during past times of warming.

We've drilled 200 metres of sediment core from beneath the ice sheet at Crary Ice Rise! The pipe is still spinning - with a bit of time up our sleeve, we’re not stopping drilling yet, as we continue to drill back through the geological archive hidden beneath the ice. 📷 Ana Tovey

We’ve hit a century! 100 metres of core! Our night-shift crew pulled the core that took us past this momentus milestone – we’re now more than halfway towards our target of 200 metres.  Follow our progress 👉swais2c.aq/our-adventure/…

Our science team are preparing for when we have our first core on deck. They’ve dug out a pit for cold storage of microbiology samples. The warm science container has been transformed into a lab, ready to X-ray cores and take sediment samples for microbiological analysis.

Hot water drilling is underway at Crary Ice Rise! The team have begun to melt a hole through the ice to make our well. They’ll melt the hole to around 100m below the ice surface, widen it to make a well cavity, and install a pump.  📷Photos: Luke Murphy / Antarctica New Zealand

First pics are in from our deep-field camp at Crary Ice Rise(CIR)! To melt a hole through the 500m ice sheet we need hot water. The team made ’seed water’ by melting snow in a small tub, and use this seed water to melt more snow, in our huge 12,000 litre flubbers.

Our Co-Chief Scientists Molly Patterson and Huw Horgan were interviewed by RNZ's climate correspondent Kate Newton, and feature in this excellent story. Have a listen and a read, to learn more about our work this season! rnz.co.nz/news/national/…

They’re leaving on a Basler! The first flight to our deep-field scientific drilling site at Crary Ice Rise has departed Ross Island. The approximately 700km journey over the Ross Ice Shelf took around 2 hrs on a Basler BT-67 (DC-3) 👉swais2c.aq/media/mission-…  📷 Ana Tovey/SWAIS2C

Our mission for ancient climate clues beneath 500m of Antarctic ice is underway! Our drillers have arrived at our deep-field camp and the science team will fly out soon. Co-Chief Scientist Molly Patterson shares this expedition update from Scott Base. bit.ly/3KxwJgC

The on-icers are on the ice! The fourth and final group of our on-ice team have arrived in Antarctica for the season. They’re an international bunch, coming from Germany, US, UK, and NZ. It’s exciting to have a full SWAIS2C contingent on continent!

The smiles say it all - they've finally made it to the ice! After an extended stay in Christchurch due to weather delays, followed by an 8hr boomerang flight back to Christchurch, the first of our science team have landed in Antarctica.

They’ve made it across the Ross Ice Shelf! Huge congrats to the @AntarcticaNZ traverse crew, for completing an epic 13-day journey to our drilling site at Crary Ice Rise. They towed sleds laden with fuel, equipment and supplies, to keep our deep-field camp cranking.

Strewth! It turns out Oz isn’t the biggest continent Down Under. Here's the latest in our series of illustrations showing the sheer scale of the icy continent relative to more familiar chunks of land. 🎨Marlo Garnsworthy. Check out the full series 👉swais2c.aq/education/educ…

🚨Sound the sediment siren! Since the last season, our engineers have made modifications to our drilling system, and put it to the test in rural New Zealand. Co-Chief Molly Patterson recorded this update while on site swais2c.aq/media/test-of-…

Groundbreaking insights about rivers beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, and their role in ice shelf melt, have been uncovered. SWAIS2C Co-Chief Huw Horgan led the team observing this water enter the ocean cavity at KIS2 on the ice sheet grounding zone👉bit.ly/44FFniV

It's SWAIS-mail time! Not a subscriber? Catch up on all the news from the project, and sign up so you don't miss out next time 👉bit.ly/44RL0M8 📷Anthony Powell / Antarctica New Zealand. Thanks to the KIS3 2024/25 team for the ultimate in sign writing.

A 100,000-year-old record of waves breaking high up on a cliff above a Cornish beach has more connection with Antarctica’s ice sheets than you might think. SWAIS2C science team member Ed Gasson explains @ConversationUK bit.ly/44p6z5p

For our past two field seasons, the @AntarcticaNZ traverse team hauled our gear 1328km across the Ross Ice Shelf. But the safe path to KIS3 was first mapped in 2017. Daniel Price helped find the route, and shares his experience in this new RNZ podcast 🎧rnz.co.nz/news/environme…

Home sweet home from the air! Check out this amazing drone footage of our deep-field Antarctic research camp KIS3 this past field season. Our on-ice team spent up to 6 weeks living here on the grounding zone of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, 860km from Scott Base🎥@AntarcticaNZ

A big shout-out to the awesome women of our 2024/25 on-ice team this International Day of Women and Girls in Science! From co-chief scientist to medic to hot water driller, these seven inspiring women all played vital roles in our work at our deep-field research camp this season.