Using a hot-water drill, British scientists have dug a 2,151.89m borehole through the Antarctic ice sheet. The comically long ice hole is the largest ever for West Antarctica, and it’s meant to improve our understanding of climate-related sea level rise.
This project, run by the British Antarctic Survey, is called “Bed Access, Monitoring and Ice Sheet History,†or BEAMISH. It began 20 years ago and its scientists tried, unsuccessfully, to drill a hole in 2004. All these years of hard work and planning, it now appears, have finally paid off.
On January 8, a crew of 11 BEAMISH team members, after 63 hours of continuous drilling, finally reached down to the sediment below, according to a BASÂ press release. From top to bottom the hole measures 1.3 miles (2,152 meters or 2.1 kilometers), which is the length of 20 football fields placed end-to-end.
“I have waited for this moment for a long time and am delighted that we’ve finally achieved our goal,†BAS lead scientist Andy Smith said in a statement. “There are gaps in our knowledge of what’s happening in West Antarctica.â€
This ice hole is now the deepest ever made with a hot-water drill in West Antarctica, the BBC reports. BEAMISH is currently working at the Rutford Ice Stream, a fast-flowing West Antarctic ice stream. As for the deepest hole of any kind ever drilled in Antarctica, that distinction goes to the 2,221.99m-deep (2,414 meters) borehole forming the IceCube Neutrino Observatory near the South Pole.
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Photo used under CC 2.0 Author: Christopher Michel
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