China Breaks Depth Record to Access Ancient Antarctic Subglacial Lake
China’s 42nd Antarctic expedition used hot-water drilling to bore 3,413 meters through the East Antarctic ice—the deepest on record—reaching Qilin Subglacial Lake, a lake sealed under ice for millennia. The contamination-free borehole method reduces environmental impact, enabling direct sampling and measurements in the buried lake; next steps will deploy instruments to study its chemistry and biology, shedding light on life under ice and informing future polar research.