Scientists have extracted a sediment core 228 meters beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, a feat that expands the accessible record of Earth’s climate history to potentially 23 million years, according to research published February 21, 2026. The breakthrough, achieved by the international SWAIS2C project, dramatically surpasses previous Antarctic drilling efforts, which rarely exceeded ten meters in depth.
The core was retrieved from a remote region of Antarctica, hundreds of kilometers from any scientific base. The expedition involved specialists from multiple nations working in extreme conditions, facing severe temperatures and significant logistical challenges. The process of obtaining the core involved melting through the ice with hot water systems to create an initial shaft, then deploying specialized equipment to penetrate the subglacial bedrock and extract the sediment without causing the borehole to collapse, a major technical risk.
Initial analyses of the sediment have revealed evidence of marine organisms that require sunlight, suggesting that areas currently covered by permanent ice were, at times in the past, exposed to the ocean. This finding provides clues about periods when ice sheets melted and the conditions that triggered those changes. Understanding these past events is considered crucial for predicting how Antarctic ice masses will respond to current global warming trends.
Researchers believe the core will allow them to analyze how ice sheets reacted during periods when global temperatures were higher than they are today. This information is intended to refine climate models, which currently have uncertainties regarding the behavior of the Antarctic ice sheet in a warming climate. By comparing past data with present-day scenarios, scientists aim to improve the accuracy of their predictions.
The effort to retrieve ancient ice and sediment samples is not new. As early as January 30, 2025, scientists were working in the remote regions of Antarctica to extract ice cores over a million years old, as part of the Million Year Ice Core project, led by paleoclimatologist Joel Pedro. That project aims to analyze air bubbles trapped within the ice to reconstruct past atmospheric conditions and improve climate projections. However, that expedition faced setbacks including storms and a COVID-19 outbreak among researchers, delaying drilling plans.
A separate effort, Beyond Epica, was similarly underway approximately four kilometers from the Million Year Ice Core project site. In July 2025, a core of ice potentially 1.5 million years old arrived in the United Kingdom, where We see being melted to reveal information about Earth’s climate. The ice is stored in a specialized -23°C chamber at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, England.
The SWAIS2C project’s sediment core represents a significant advancement in understanding the Earth’s climate system. The extracted material is not merely a collection of sediments, but a direct record of millions of years of environmental history. Researchers have not yet announced a timeline for further analysis or publication of detailed findings.
