Beyond EPICA - Oldest Ice

Name: Beyond EPICA - Oldest Ice
Address: Venice, IT
Telephone: 0471-48311969

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Beyond EPICA - Oldest Ice

The BE-OI consortium and its international partners unite a unique concentration of scientific expertise and infrastructure for ice-core investigations.

BE-OI - searching for the oldest ice core on Earth

The Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice (BE-OI) consortium and its international partners unite a globally unique concentration of scientific expertise and infrastructure for ice-core investigations. BE-OI is an EU Coordination and Support Action (CSA). It delivers the technical, scientific and financial basis for a comprehensive plan to retrieve an ice co

re up to 1.5 million years old in a future project during the Beyond EPICA – Drilling Phase. This would be an important contribution for the future exploration of Antarctica and promises unique insights about climate and the global carbon fluxes. This knowledge will improve future prognoses of climate development with solid quantitative data and will allow establishing more targeted strategies, to cope with the societal challenges of global change. BE-OI is the European contribution for the global search for a suitable site for a ice-core deep drilling. The consortium takes care of the pre-site surveys for site selection around Dome C and Dome Fuji, both potentially appropriate regions in East Antarctica. Other science consortia will investigate other regions under the umbrella of the International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences (IPICS).

24/03/2026

The Beyond EPICA Steering Committee and LAG Meeting has just started in the beautiful framework of The Veneto Institute of Sciences, Letters and Arts at Palazzo Loredan, Venice, Italy

21/01/2026

Last day(s) at Little Dome C.
Sergio headed to Concordia with the Pistenbully, the blue container, and the Skidoo. The rest of the team was busy closing up the workshop container.
The end of this field season also marks the end of field work for the Beyond EPICA project as a whole, which will formally conclude on May 31st.
The overall goal of the project was to drill down to bedrock and recover the oldest stratigraphically layered ice of Antarctica: mission accomplished last season! Preliminary analyses indicate that the climate record we have obtained most likely extends back over 1.5 million years, a milestone that exceeds our expectations.
During this season, we aimed to drill into the bedrock and replicate the oldest ice in a deviated borehole. While we were not able to obtain a rock core, we retrieved bedrock debris mixed with ice: a valuable scientific achievement.
The borehole deviation proved to be very challenging, but we were finally able to recover almost 30 m of ice at about 2000 m depth. We now have an open access point to collect further samples of ancient ice.
📸J. Lemburg and G. Lawer©PNRA/IPEV

𝐼 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑒𝑥𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑚𝑦 𝑑𝑒𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑏𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑢𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡: 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑒ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑠, 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑁𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑠. 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑓𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑢𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑠𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑑𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑜𝑛.
𝑊𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑠 𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑚𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑎, 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑜 𝑍𝑢𝑐𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑖, 𝐶𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑦, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐷𝑢𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡 𝑑’𝑈𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝐴𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎, 𝑎𝑠 𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝐻𝑜𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑢𝑟𝑐ℎ. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑏𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑎 𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒. 𝐵𝑒𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑑 𝐸𝑃𝐼𝐶𝐴 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑙𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑥𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑁𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝐴𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑢𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑠𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑥𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑠.

Carlo Barbante, on behalf of the LDC Team

19/01/2026

Our stay at Little Dome C is coming closer and closer to an end.
Yesterday, six technicians from Concordia, together with Marion, arrived to help Sergio and Gianluca shut down the shower module and prepare it for transport. Later in the day, it was brought to Concordia along with the +4 °C container and the two generators.
The motor section, which had been used all season, was inspected and found to be free of liquid, so it was packed to be sent to Copenhagen.
Iben, Mohammad, and Henrique waved goodbye to Little Dome C.📸B. Seth©PNRA/IPEV
Gianluca gifted the remaining ones this morning with freshly baked bread.📸K. Ederer©PNRA/IPEV
Today, a final clean-up of the drilling tent was carried out.
Organising the transport of boxes, writing packing lists, and managing the relocation of personnel kept the team busy.
As it was extremely windy (around 20 kt) and cold today, the closing of the workshop was postponed to tomorrow.

18/01/2026

Barbara scored 2 h 1 m 40 s for 500 pieces — a good performance, but not enough to top Iben’s first place!📸I.Koldtoft©PNRA/IPEV

Henrique and Iben had a look at the radar acquisition: the data were recorded for only 1.7 km.

The drill tent is almost ready: ice was removed from the recycling IBC tank, the winch and tower control cabinets were disconnected and moved to the Sfusi sledge, and the tower, lying horizontally, was covered with the huge tarp.📸K. Ederer and G. Lawer©PNRA/IPEV

The seismic scientists paid a visit again. They covered the same area as last time, nine days ago, using two Pistenbullys and our Skidoo to dig out the 43 seismic sensors. 📸K. Ederer and G. Lawer©PNRA/IPEV
Lunch was prepared by our guest chef Vito and sous-chef Gianluca: a fantastic pasta al tonno and pasta al parmigiano!

Ski tours and walks in the afternoon were encouraged by the good weather. Afterwards, cake bakers Gunther and Barbara were urged by pizzaiolo Gianluca to hurry up.

17/01/2026

The camp is approaching closure. Filtering has been completed, and the borehole has been filled to a depth of 73 m with Estisol 165 and liquid from the recycled IBC tanks. It will be topped up with the remaining recycled liquid today.
All the ice core boxes have been moved to Concordia.📸B.Seth and G. Lawer©PNRA/IPEV
The roof opening of the drilling tent has been closed.📸B.Seth©PNRA/IPEV

Iben and Henrique conducted the radar survey with the skidoo(📸B.Seth©PNRA/IPEV), with Sergio following in the Pistenbully. They advanced for 10 km but had to stop because the hard disk was full. They downloaded the data, emptied the hard disk, and repeated the first 5 km, but by the time they came back, the hard disk became full again. The survey will end here due to the limited time remaining at Little Dome C.

16/01/2026

Last drilling for Beyond EPICA!
After obtaining a further 4.89 m of replicate ice from the new hole, we now have a core of 28.23 m from the deviated borehole.
In total, we filled four ice core boxes with replicate ice, plus one box containing the scraping samples for stable water isotopes.
In the picture you can see the last replicate core!📸I. Koldtoft©PNRA/IPEV

Yesterday was also Lemmi's birthday, which was celebrated with a delicious cake!📸I. Koldtoft©PNRA/IPEV

15/01/2026

Once started, the drilling into the deviation at about 2042 m went smoothly and the team proved its fantastic skills and spirit. They did 9 more runs and brought up 19.82 m of ice core, one prettier than the other☺️. The initial half-moon shape grew visibly with each run until we had a full core after 19 m of continuous drilling. 📸B. Seth©PNRA/IPEV

The aim for the day was to get the antitorque fully into the new, deviated hole, which will make future drilling much easier as we progress deeper into the ice. However, the team noticed that the amount of chips floating in the borehole had increased significantly, making it necessary to filter the hole before continuing.

Most of the empty BEOI ice‑core boxes had already been sent to Concordia a few days earlier, and only two had been kept at LDC for emergencies. As a result, additional boxes had to be brought back from Concordia to pack all the freshly drilled ice.

At 5 p.m., while filtering the borehole, the group took part in the online inauguration of the Ice Memory project. 📸B. Seth©PNRA/IPEV

13/01/2026

𝑇𝑜𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑘𝑠 𝑎 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑤𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑑. 𝐴𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑥𝑡𝑦 𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑔𝑔𝑙𝑒 ‘𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑐𝑒,’ 𝑤𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑒ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛.

𝑊ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑢𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑑𝑟𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑑𝑒𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑜𝑛, 𝑤𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑓𝑢𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒.

Our team finally managed to drill into the laboriously produced ledge using the drill head on the deviation tool. Since, for technical reasons, this head has room for only a few centimetres of ice inside, they returned to the surface at around 10 PM and switched to the 2.5‑m ice‑core drill setup with the heavy dead weight. The tiny core was able to guide the drill—without core catchers—into the wall, penetrating approximately 1.3 m.

The following drill run was surprisingly easy, and the third run of the day brought two cores to the surface, with the lower half‑moon‑shaped core covering more than half of the area.

The team had to rush a ‘primitive’ logging setup, as they had already disassembled and packed away the logging table and the Swiss circular saw.
The last bottle of sparkling wine was opened to celebrate this Beyond EPIC(A) moment!

Photo 1: The half-moon ice core from the borehole deviation 📸B. Seth©PNRA/IPEV
Photo 2: the field team with the first core of the season 📸J. Jolivet©PNRA/IPEV

12/01/2026

On Saturday evening, the team enjoyed the pizza night, this time featuring Iben’s white potato pizza with cheese and a pizza with pineapple and ham — a bitter pill to swallow for our Italian guys! 📸B. Seth©PNRA/IPEV

On Sunday, Iben and Henrique carried out a test run with the radar system between Little Dome C and the old Australian drilling site (Million Year Ice Core, MYIC), about 5 km away📸B. Seth and H. Traeger©PNRA/IPEV. For safety, Gianluca accompanied them with the Pistenbully. The radar monitor became too cold during the trip, and they had to wait for it to warm up. Unfortunately, it did not record any data. When they tried again around the camp in the evening, at the same outside temperature, it finally produced data. Improved insulation and heating options for the equipment are now being discussed, and they will try again when the weather allows.

The remaining ice core boxes from last year (containing B‑cuts), along with the box with the sediment–ice core pieces — all previously stored in the balloon cave in Concordia — were flown to Mario Zucchelli Station (MZS) yesterday, thanks to the Concordia logistics team and the Canadian flight crew. The boxes will be stored at MZS in our –50 °C re**er (the same one used to transport the Ice Memory Project cores to Antarctica) and will await shipment with the Laura Bassi.

11/01/2026

The day started with Gianluca baking a chestnut bread for breakfast, which filled the common tent with a fantastic fragrance.

The morning in the drill tent, however, was full of troubles: the heater of the pig (the large tank used for melting the chips and then separating the water from the Estisol) wasn’t working, and the pin on one of the tower pistons broke while the tower was being moved into a vertical position. As a result, many hands were busy with repairs until they were finally able to mount the deviation tool (the one with the spring that we used and described earlier this season) onto the 2.5‑m core barrel, which still has the heavy dead weight inside.

At around 2042 m depth, we reached the ledge that we had created over the past two weeks and were able to stand on it with the full weight of the drill before slipping off. When we attempted to orient the deviation tool into the correct position, the entire drill team gathered in the cabin, watching the process with curiosity. Unfortunately, we were unable to locate the ledge again after that initial success. For this reason, we decided to clean the edge tomorrow using only the dead weight before testing this new approach again.

Pascal and Greg from Concordia arrived in Little Dome C before lunch, managing to repair the SDMO1 generator on site!

In the picture: the complete BEOI drill team 2025/26 in the drillers’ cabin: (clockwise) Matthias, Gunther, Mohammad, Philippe, Iben, Barbara, Katrin.
📸P. Possenti©PNRA/IPEV

Indirizzo

Venice

Telefono

0471-48311969

Sito Web

http://www.beyondepica.eu/

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