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Researchers of the Lost Ice

If it were an adventure film it might be called Researchers of the Lost Ice. Set against the backdrop of East Antarctica’s remote and mysterious Bunger Hills, scientists (including a globe-trotting Dr Jones) spend 60 nights on the ice in tents withstanding blizzards and no showers in search of natural archives that hold the secrets to Antarctica’s past and future. 

It was even directed by a man named Steven. Although it was all strictly permitted (under the Antarctic Treaty there is no plundering of this continent’s national treasures) and there were definitely no snakes (well…the logistics to get there felt like a giant game of snakes and ladders). But it was all worth it. A few days after the team arrived they flew by helicopter to a frozen lake to start their fieldwork. 

“It felt like a long build-up to this point with many months of planning and weeks of waiting in Hobart to fly down south,” PhD student Jacinda O’Connor explains. 

“The moment when we pulled up our sediment corer and opened it to reveal a well-in-tact core with visible layering was very satisfying, and I was thrilled to have just collected the first sample of my PhD.”

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