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[wind blowing]

[indistinct voices on radio]

[vehicle whirring]

[indistinct chatter on radio]

[upbeat song playing on radio]

[man]
Everyone thought it was

this big, dead,
benign block of ice.

But there's some
big lakes under this ice.

Some largest
lakes on our planet

are under this ice,
and we just have to get there.

It's gonna take
a lot of effort to do it.

Yeah. A lot of gray hair.

Some of us have to get gray
hair and lose it to-- to do it.

Yeah.

[pensive music playing]

[man on radio]
Hello, ladies and gentlemen

out there
at McMurdo Station, Antarctica.

You're listening
to 104.5, uh, Ice Radio,

an affiliation
of the American Forces Network.

This is the Hot Cup
of Joe Radio Show.

[chill guitar music]

[Amy] It's-- it's not
that it's just another day,

but in some ways, it's a day
we've been planning for,

for so long that, you know,
you are ready for it.

You think of someone
like John Preskill,

33 years straight
that he's been coming here.

My first year was 1983.

So we have our whole lives
that we've been working here,

often for many months per year.

And to me,
when I got off the plane,

I felt like I was coming home,

which I feel bad saying to
my kids, it's my second home.

But I do feel that way.

I'm worried
that she suspects us.

One day I'm going to go to
Antarctica, be a polar explorer.

Nobody's here.
Isn't that incredible?

Happy birthday!

[laughter]

♪ Happy birthday,
dear Amy ♪

♪ Happy birthday
to you ♪

-[applause]
-All right.

All I want for my birthday is,

I don't know,
an eight meter core.

-Yay!
-[laughter]

That's easy to do.

-[laughter]
-[man] Will you take seven?

I'll take seven.

[wind rushing]

Man, it's cold today, isn't it?

-All right, see you later.
-Okay.

This is one of those
walking scenes, isn't it?

[woman laughs]

[indistinct chatter]

[woman] All right, everyone.

Thank you for coming out on
a snowy Sunday evening

to, uh, our science lecture.

15 years ago,
people didn't believe

there was much water
under the ice sheet,

and nobody really
thought there was life.

Okay. How do we know
there's lakes under there?

[woman] We find
subglacial lakes in Antarctica

by shooting lasers from space
at the Antarctica ice sheet.

ICESat orbit
surrounds Antarctica

and we observe changes
in surface elevation.

We find
these pockets that change,

and we infer
that they are lakes.

So it-- I--
it probably plays a pretty

big role in the Earth system.

Biochemistry,
fertilization of the ocean.

This is something
that hasn't been studied.

SALSA, which stands
for Subglacial Antarctic

Lakes Scientific Access,

is a pretty unique
and interdisciplinary project.

SALSA is a,
uh, a project looking

at subglacial lakes
in Antarctica.

I've called it, uh,
the world's largest wetland.

It's got,
I think it's got, I mean,

I'm propos--
proposing this, it's got life.

It's just under a mile of ice.

[woman] We're
going to be going out

to a lake called
Subglacial Lake Mercer.

A lot of subglacial lakes
fill and drain,

and they drain to the ocean.

So what's happening under
Antarctic ice really affects

the rest of the planet as well
through this ocean connection.

There's the basic
science curiosity aspect too,

of knowing how
and where life exists on Earth.

[man] Lakes anywhere on Earth
are reservoirs of history.

We will learn a lot about
the history of Antarctica

in terms of when the ice cover
was here, when it was not here.

See how old things are to see
if the ocean was up there.

And that tells us
about past climates.

And that's really important.

When you have
a continent that's almost

completely covered by ice,
and all that ice

has the potential
to melt and raise sea level,

you certainly wanna
understand its history.

And some of those clues
are held in the lake sediments.

[car engines rumbling]

[coffee dripping]

[man] This is a rough continent.

You ever heard
of the acronym HEKTMOTFOTE?

It's an old one.

A lot of people down
here haven't heard that.

That was, like,
late '70s, early '80s.

Harshest Environment Known To
Man On The Face Of The Earth.

I mean, if something broke,
that's why.

[chuckles]

[man] You never heard that one?

[Chris] I haven't
heard that one, no.

-[man] Now you have, Chris.
-[Chris] Yeah.

[woman] Brent,
you wanna take it away?

[Brent] All right.

I'm just showing you some data
here on the microbiology,

as well as some of the physical
and chemical parameters.

[Brent's voice fades]

We're bringing
biologists, geochemists,

geologists together
to try to tap into

this unique environment
of a subglacial lake.

And when we go inland,
onto the continent,

this is gonna be very
different than just about

any research
that I've ever done.

The only way
to do these investigations

is to work together,

and it's a dream team
of polar scientists.

[woman]
What kind of scientist am I?

I'm a microbial ecologist,
um, and biogeochemist.

I study microorganisms
mostly that live in water.

I use the fossils of polar
marine diatoms to reconstruct

the history of oceanography
and climate in Antarctica.

I would say
that I'm a geochemist

who specializes
in questions of past

climate change
and carbon cycling on Earth.

And I do radiocarbon dating
of the sediment.

I'm an ecosystem scientist.

I need to know
what's going on in the lake

and in the sediments
and see how they work

and how they fit
into the world, right?

The whole Earth system.

Everyone out here's
smarter than I am.

I just kinda, like, take bits
of it and put it all together.

[Brent] We're all doing
something different,

but we all need the same thing.

We all need the water,

we all need the sediments,

and we all need to get
through a lot of ice.

I'm an ice driller by trade,
one of the few people

that make their living
by drilling holes in ice

in Antarctica
for science projects.

I've drilled more depth and
done more hot water drilling

than any other person
on the planet.

So... for what that's worth.

So, I'm sorry
I missed the meeting,

John, just for you,
because, you know, this really,

the racked in
is kind of your domain.

I got this sign
made just for you.

[laughter, applause]

There you go, John, for you.

It's-- I-- it's--
I can't carry it.

My weight's already in.

[laughter]

[man] I think
there's just something

about going to the unknown.

It's nothing like what
you really think it is,

but when you get to
the field camp,

that's when you really find out

what it's like to work
in Antarctica.

[woman] Over six feet
or under six feet.

All right, so what do I need,
I need a water bottle.

[man] Uh, that's a pee bottle.

[man] Yeah. That's--

[laughter]

No one will stop you
to drink from that.

[man] How do you
tell the difference?

[chuckles] Well,
it looks slightly yellow.

Oh, and it says pee.

[man] Don't answer
that question.

[woman] A female urinary funnel.

I don't want one of those.

-[woman] You don't?
-No.

Well, there's a pole
coming out of my head.

Where's this going?
Oh, here's where it's going.

-This should be it.
-I can't wait to do this

-in 40 below air.
-I was gonna say..

can't wait to do this
in the wind.

[forklift engine
roaring, beeping]

[footsteps crunching]

Do you have some cool shades
to wear out there,

so you look badass?

[man] I got my ski goggles, so.

They work fine.

Yeah. I look like I'm an
old guy heading to a buffet.

[chuckles]

-[man] You are.
-Kinda.

Gone.

[wheels squeaking]

Yeah.

[woman] Have fun, guys.

[woman] My neon bag.

[man] For SALSA, we've
been preparing for three years.

Yes, I'm worried about
a lot of things.

Uh, we could
not get in the lake.

We could have weather that
keeps us sitting in McMurdo

till mid-January.

We could
have mechanical failure.

We could stick something
in the borehole,

and that would end it.

We don't have the resources
or the opportunity

to do another hole, so...

A three-year project

all boils down to
our success during one week.

That's worrying.

Let's all remember
while we're down here,

folks, that, uh,
we're all in this together.

[upbeat music]

[laughter]

[man] Next week,
we're gonna be drilling a hole

through
a thousand meters of ice,

and we don't even
know what's under there.

We don't even
know how deep it is.

Isn't that exciting?

Might not even be water there.
Holy crap.

You know, I mean, we're going--

we're going
in totally the unknown.

[indistinct chatter]

-[woman] Earplugs?
-[man] Yes, please.

[woman]
Yeah. Keep 'em coming.

[indistinct chatter]

[plane engine roaring]

[man] Ice,
you can't get away from it.

Ice and ice and ice.

90% of the world's ice
is right here. Ice.

[pensive music playing]

[man] One of the most
perspective changing aspects

of Antarctica is just seeing
how small we are compared to

the vastness of this continent.

And you look around,
you see nothing but snow

and mountains all around you.

And it's just this wonderful

but awe-inspiring feeling
that, you know,

you're almost
all alone down here.

As scientists,
as natural skeptics,

we're also explorers at heart.

[man]
Anybody wanna sit up front?

[man] And the chance to do
difficult and challenging

research in an environment
like this that's rarely touched

and rarely observed is--
is truly exciting.

[man] So you must
be right up the base

of the transient
Arctics then, right?

[man]
We're a little bit out there.

We're actually
in the ice stream,

uh, this is
the Mercer Ice Stream.

But of course those ice streams
are coming off of the transient.

[woman] Mercer 0332.
Destination next.

[indistinct voices
over the radio]

[man] Try and make
this landing like we fly.

-[indistinct].
-It's cold.

[airplane engine roars]

[pensive music continues]

[woman] The exploration
that we're doing,

it's because there's
a goal beyond ourselves.

And that's what distinguishes
us from pure adventure.

So we do have an adventure
when we're out there, but...

always above that adventure
is the mission,

which is the science.

And I don't know that
I could do the adventure

without the mission.

♪

[hammering]

[scraping]

[woman] Oh, my gosh,
Molly, we're neighbors.

[laughs]

I think it's the, uh, field
camp rookie jitters, though.

It's probably fine.

Looks like
I got some shoveling to do.

That's what you
get when you're last.

[Ryan] Do you have bamboo?

No, I don't have bamboo yet.

-[Ryan] I will go get you.
-Thank you.

That was my student, Ryan.

She arrived yesterday. She's
an old pro now at the camp.

-[Ryan] I wanna do it.
-Oh, you wanna do it?

-Okay. A nice angle.
-[chuckles]

A nice angle.

[hammering]

Now this is what my dad
used to yell at me for

when I used
the hammer like that.

You're not getting
a mechanical advantage.

I don't care. It's going in.

[laughter]

Antarctica is a harsh continent.

[Ryan] It's a harsh continent.

[hammering continues]

A lot of the water sampling
people will go to sleep

when the sediment sample
people are going.

And I'm right next door
to water samplers.

But I guess we'll figure it out.

I don't think any of us
are gonna sleep that much.

Oh, look at that,
home sweet home.

There we go.

♪

[engine rumbling]

[man] So it's clearly,
uh, tilted and that's

not gonna be
good inside working.

That looks pretty good.

Science is improvisational art.

You're always improving.
Coming up with an idea

and getting other people
to play the music with you.

[metal clunking]

[man] It's a hot water drill

and the hole we're gonna drill

will be about
a thousand meters,

but nobody knows
quite for sure.

Perfect fit.

[man] In principle,

we're drilling using
a kilometer of garden hose.

In practice, it's a complicated
mechanical system that,

if it breaks, you're
in the middle of nowhere to fix.

Well, this is a new problem.

We had a bunch
of other problems

that we kind
of fought through yesterday.

We had four
fuel solenoids that went bad

and it's unclear
if they went bad...

over winter.

And now one of the-- one of
the two that we actually have

with all of its safeties
and stuff in place,

um, isn't starting.

[machine whirring]

So he's melting snow
and it's to fill this.

And that's our start water
for the drill.

That's gonna start
the whole drill system.

So this is made by farmers.

They probably
had milk in here at one time.

Well, he calls it milk
but I think it's cottage cheese.

Cottage cheese?
Was that it? Curds?

-Yeah.
-Huh?

The curd came.

So this is all
dairy farm stuff, hey?

When you hire farmers
to build your drill,

that's what you get.

I can take over on this too,
you know, later.

[footsteps crunching]

[laughs]

You're easy to startle.

[man] Oh, that'll be it.

[machine whirring]

This is one of the starter
relays rattled loose.

-Okay.
-I pushed it back down

-and it clicked and it came on.
-Great.

Great. Not a problem.

I just ripped them out
and reseated them.

[footsteps crunching]

[man] I'm hoping
to turn everything

over to him for Christmas day.

And I hope
somebody brought a ribbon.

Justin, we oughta be
filling our tank like crazy.

[man indistinct over the radio]

[man] Melting snow
in Antarctica is kind of like

watching grass
grow in Antarctica.

Very slow.

[man] In performing
this project, we are certainly

tampering with
a pristine environment.

Nobody's ever accessed
this lake before.

[woman]
So the question comes up,

can we do the work
that we wanna do in a clean way

without contaminating
where we're going?

[man] Careful through here.

[man] It's also
a scientific requirement.

If we drilled into a lake
and contaminated it

with material
from the surface and then

collected those samples,
our science would be garbage.

So this is
the filtration building.

But this is really what
makes us a clean access drill.

We have two sets of filters.

It comes out,
we go through UV lights.

And what this does is
it breaks down anything

that's organic
into base material.

And at that point, this,
we send it on over to the rest

of the drill
and do standard, uh,

pressure pumping and heating,

and then down to
the drill heads.

[man] Oh my gosh, here we go.
Pulling the hose out.

[metal clunking]

[man] All right, pan out.

[man] That's all good.

We're drilling.

[drill whirring]

[indistinct chatter]

Attention, everybody.

All right.
Just a little short--

-Got an announcement.
-A short thing.

Hey, we've been here
a little over a week,

but finally today after

overcoming many obstacles,
we're are drilling.

It started at 17:45
to drill down,

and it's going
for about four days,

but I have a little high five
award for all the drillers.

Woo!

[applause, cheers]

Thank you, guys.

You can-- you can be the--

Thanks Dar, thanks Graham.

Yeah. Thank us
in a few days, maybe.

[drill whirring]

[wind rushing]

Whoo!

Where is the wind sock?
Ooh, the wind sock

is all the way out.

[wind rushing]

[man] This is the biggest sled
I've ever seen.

Would be an amazing toboggan.

[man] It makes you--
it reminds you

how much of lunatic
Scott and those guys were.

[wind rushing]

[speaking indistinctly]

[tent flapping]

[metal clunking,
machine whirring]

How deep are we, John?

[man] Uh, a bit over a hundred.

Yeah, a hundred [indistinct].

[indistinct chatter]

[man] This lake was named
after John Mercer,

as was the Mercer Ice stream,
which comes into it.

John Mercer was a glaciologist
that worked out here,

and he was one of
the first people to--

to say that if CO2 in
the atmosphere keeps rising

these-- these ice sheets
are gonna go away.

And that was in '79.
He was a pretty amazing guy.

My God, what foresight.

You know? And now
it's all come to fruition.

We know that's happening.

[ice crunching]

This little bit
of snow we melted,

it filled that big tank.

What do you think will happen
if this ice sheet melts?

Where's the big tank?

The ocean.

[song playing on radio]

[pots clunking]

[tap water running]

I don't want to get
my last clean shirt dirty,

so I'm wearing my apron.

[man] Your working clothes.

[man] Oh, you have
your working clothes on.

[man] Yeah.

[man] I have
my Sunday clothes on.

[woman] Is it Sunday?

Shit if I know.
Uh, no, it's Friday.

[indistinct chatter]

[man] It's coming.

[song playing on radio]

[man] It's a Christmas tradition
in the deep field

to turn on the HF radio
and listen to Christmas carols

the other field camps
sing to each other.

If it's your desire
to put together a song

and sing to the rest of
Antarctica without shame,

let me know.

[laughs]

This is the saddest
Christmas tree.

[machine engine roars]

[man]
The hole's about 170 meters.

So if everything goes well,

it should be around, um,

around the 27th,
28th of December.

Okay. About th-- four days.
Three, four days.

Are you really gonna sing
this SALSA Navidad?

[woman] We're really gonna
sing. Music at noon.

Okay. Oh, he's got the words.

[laughter]

And play ukulele for
the first time ever in my life.

To a whole continent.

To an entire continent.

[laughter]

[indistinct chatter]

[static on radio]

Mac ops, mac ops,

SALSA would love to
take the mic.

-[laughter]
-[static on radio]

[woman over the radio]
SALSA we hear you

loud and clear, go ahead.

[instruments playing]

♪ SALSA Navidad ♪

♪ SALSA Navidad ♪

♪ SALSA Navidad ♪

♪ SALSA Ano y SALSAdad ♪

♪ We wanna wish you
a SALSA Christmas ♪

♪ We wanna wish you
a SALSA Christmas ♪

♪ We wanna wish you
a SALSA Christmas ♪

♪ From subglacial
Mercer Lake ♪

♪ We wanna wish you
a SALSA Christmas ♪

♪ We wanna wish you
a SALSA Christmas ♪

♪ We wanna wish you
a SALSA Christmas ♪

♪ From subglacial
Mercer Lake ♪

[cheering, applause]

[man] Merry Christmas
from subglacial lake Mercer.

[woman on radio] Thank you,
guys. That was lovely.

["Winter Wonderland"
plays on radio]

[grunting]

[laughter]

That's the pencil [indistinct].

[man] Hey, drill crew.

Do you have
a current depth for me?

[man on radio] 902.73.

902. We-- we're getting around.

[indistinct chatter]

[man]
Now I go to sleep. [laughs]

I'll knock on wood.

Hopefully we break
through tomorrow.

-Same.
-And then you get to get--

-go to work.
-Yeah.

Then I get to have sleep.

-Yeah. Yeah, we'll trade off.
-[laughter]

[man] Most parts of the world,

a sundial doesn't work
24 hours a day,

but here, since we cast
a shadow all night, it works.

Um, I haven't done the
wee hours of the morning yet.

I have my shower.

Here's the shower.

The more-- you know.

Um, water.

Well, I have a-- a sleep mask.

This helps because
it's daylight all the time.

Um, I've got my water bottle.

I bring my own pillowcase
with me wherever I go.

So no matter what,
I have something from home.

Look, a pillow.

Stinky clothes everywhere.

This is, uh, clothes
that don't smell so bad.

[chuckles] And these are
clothes that smell really bad

so that-- that--
that one stays shut.

[woman] So that's all I have.

I don't really
have almost anything.

I don't like having stuff.

[man] I am the onsite
electrician here at SALSA Camp.

My deal, I've always wanted
to see the world and,

you know, 99% of the people
on the planet Earth

will never be able to come down
here and see what I got to see.

And especially here at camp,
I mean there's, you know,

40 some people here.

And we're the--
about the only 40 people

that'll ever be in part--
this part of Antarctica ever.

[machine whirring]

[man] So when we break through,
all of a sudden,

lake water's gonna rush into
the borehole

and we're gonna see 20 meters
of head pressure rise

on our pressure sensor.

That's what tells us we broke
through. Everything else is--

there's otherwise
no indication.

There's no, like, loud noises.

There's no confetti, there's
no, you know, it's just, like,

we watch-- we watch
the pressure sensor spike,

and then we know we're in,

and then we start
hauling ass out and--

Should be literally
a vertical line on a--

on a graph and you'll know it
instantly when we--

-insta-- I mean, instantly.
-[man] Yeah.

It shows up in a second.

It's-- it's 20 meters
of water goes instantaneous.

[machine whirring]

[woman]
What's going on, Graham?

We saw a rise in our down
hole pressure sensor.

So it looks like-- I mean,
that's what we're looking for

when we break into the lake.
So, looks like we're in.

[indistinct chatter]

[man] Looks to me like
a breakthrough.

-Congratulations.
-[man] Yeah.

-You drove into a lake.
-[man] I sure did.

-[whistles]
-[man] That's a change

in head pressure
on our down hole pump.

We were at 58 and
then it went up to 72

pretty much instantaneous.

[man] Yeah.
That's pretty significant.

Did we make it?

[man] Feels like it.

Doesn't that
look pretty textbook?

-[indistinct chatter]
-Yeah, good job.

You did a great job.

-[man] We should mark the hose.
-[man] Yeah.

-Mark it right at the depth?
-[man] Yeah.

That mark represents
subglacial lake Mercer

right there.

[wind rushing]

[man] The Niskin bottle will be
down for nine hours, roughly.

We think we're gonna
get three casts of that.

Uh, and we move
on to the multicore.

And here we are about
dinnertime on the 29th.

[man]
That's sort of our first cycle.

Then it's rinse
and repeat, right?

[man] So as soon as
that borehole is generated,

there's essentially
a stopwatch that starts

because
it begins to freeze back.

We will be operating
around the clock

such that there's no dead air.

Something like
the sediment core.

Seems like you want two
marine techs on that, right?

[man] Yeah. We'll--
we'll always have

the appropriate
coverage.

[woman] I mean, we have
a whole series of instruments

that need to go down that hole,

and we have a very limited
amount of time

in which to do that.

You only get one chance.

So we're on, you know, we're
down to the countdown, huh?

Okay, great.

You know,
if you ever need anything,

Brent is a walking,
uh, like office over there.

-I mean, look at this shit.
-[laughter]

[man] Tony,
you should have a fanny pack.

[indistinct chatter]

It's about 3:45 AM.

Perfectly relaxed,
stable, nerves of steel.

[man] Are we at risk
of running out of peroxide

in this project, John?

Okay. We're gonna use a lot.

It's showtime.

[machine whirring]

[man]
We'll know in about an hour.

We'll see the water.

[man] [indistinct]
is completely in the ice.

All right, Chuck, you can
go ahead and start down at 5%.

[Chuck] Roger that, 5%.

[man speaking indistinctly
on radio]

[man] Let's wait until
they bury the-- the feelers.

[man] And I wanna
make sure I feel-- see that.

-[man] Yeah, that's water.
-[man] Okay. Full stop.

[Chuck] Stopped.

[man] Well, I want to know
where to bring the pump to.

[crosstalk] That's 101 meters
below the ice surface.

[man] Okay.
Should we proceed down?

[man]
Yeah, go slow until you--

-I wanna see--
-[man] Chuck,

let's proceed down
at 3%, please. 3%.

[Chuck] Roger that, 3%.

[water burbling, machine beeps]

[man] Boy, that does look
total sci-fi right?

-Yeah.
-[chuckles] It's perfect.

[man] It's a pretty
tough place to live, huh?

No light,
under a thousand meters of ice.

You know, life's pretty
tenacious, microbial life.

You know, the microbial
world's everywhere

and it just doesn't make sense

that a continent this big
has no life.

[pensive music playing]

[man]
Every ecosystem on the surface,

directly or indirectly,
gets its energy from the sun.

That is obviously
not a possibility in

these subglacial lakes.

[woman] If you are
a microbe living in

subglacial lake Mercer,
you would--

you would never see the sun,
it's always dark down there.

And the temperature
is probably just below

what we would consider
freezing at the surface.

And so it's very dark,
very cold.

Um, very isolated.

Ah, there's
no more room in here.

[indistinct chatter]

I think we'll get a--

we'll get a breakthrough in
the bottom of the lake.

-[man] That's cool.
-Wait, what do you got there?

[crosstalk]

[man] Full stop.

[Chuck] Full stop.

I think that's ice for sure.

So that's
the bottom of the ice.

[man] Yeah, that's the ice.

[indistinct man on radio]

[man] Beautiful ice, huh?

[man]
Yeah. It's really awesome.

[cheering]

[man] That's basal ice for you.

[Chuck] Wow. That's frozen on.

[man] Yeah, that is.
That's-- yeah.

[man] That's the basal ice?

Yeah. We're right
at the lake interface. Yeah.

[man] That is way different
than I pictured it.

[man] Just another
ecosystem down there.

Different kind
that we're used to.

It's like a big
wetland down there.

There's microbes and
they're transforming nutrients.

So picture it as
a wetland with,

uh, no typha,
no cattails, no black--

red-winged blackbirds,

but water with ponds and lakes

and streams
running through them.

That's what's under us here.

[man] Damn,
I'm glad we're in this lake.

-Yeah [laughter]
-I'm glad it's in the lake.

[Chuck speaking indistinctly
on radio]

Yeah, we're definitely
tensioning up.

We're apparently
stuck on something.

[man] Look, we're coming
back up in the ice. Look.

[man] Do we wanna stop and look
or just keep moving?

[man] No, no,
we're getting outta here.

[man] We gotta
get this out of the hole.

We can't use the hole at all.

[man] We're gonna keep moving--

[man] There it is.
It's trapped in the ice.

We're out, so.

[man] That was odd.

[song playing on radio]

This allows us to capture
water from a discreet depth.

And when we get to the depth
that we want to sample,

this is connected to a wire

and we send...

one of these messengers
down the wire

and when it hits,

it triggers a release.

[machine whirring]

[man]
Tell us when you're ready.

Christina, Amy, standby.
We're gonna start lowering.

[woman] Copy.

Only a thousand more to go.

[whirring continues]

[man] Oh, I'm good.
I'm-- I'm just cold.

I've-- I've been up
since 2:00 this morning.

I know I'm gonna have to--
as soon as this bottle comes up

and then see what happens.

And I'm going to bed
one way or another.

Probably, I think
they're going slow.

[man on radio] 1075.

-Oh.
-1075.

[man] Christina, a messenger
just went down... now.

[Christina] Copy.

Bring it up.

[whirring]

[whistling]

[rock music playing on radio]

[man] Just more tune.
Nice, easy listening.

[woman on radio]
What is your feed?

33 meters per minute.

[woman on radio] Thank you.

[man] Yeah.
Let's bring it all the way up.

[rock song continues]

Time's up.

It's a boy.
[man] All right.

Thanks, John.

-Seven liters.
-Seven?

[man] Oh, there we go.
There we go.

Rock and roll.

We have lake water.

With all of that water,

there's lots and lots
of microbial habitat.

It is surprising that that life
exists down there,

but it turns out
that life exists

almost anywhere that we look.

If there's water
and nutrients, there's life.

In order to survive in a lake
like subglacial lake Mercer,

a microbe would have
to be good at extracting

nutrients and energy,
basically from rocks

or from organic material

that's been preserved
underneath the ice.

[man] Microbes make everything.

They make all the atmosphere,

they transform
all the nutrients.

And you could take all
the humans and animals

away from this earth

and the microbes
would just be fine

and the atmosphere would
be good and it'd be good air.

But if you take the microbes,
everything dies.

In extreme environments, you'll
never just see a pure strain.

You always see two
that work together.

One organisms
turning over nitrogen,

cycling it around to ammonia.

And there's organisms
eating that.

[woman] And that's one of my
favorite things about ecology.

It's always about how things
on Earth are connected.

Um, and none of these things
can exist in a vacuum.

Like, we all need each other
from person to person

down to the microbes.

-I'm going to bed.
-[man] Huh?

-Good luck you guys.
-Goodnight.

It's 2:00 in the morning.

I got up at 2:00 in the
morning.

It's been a 24-hour day.

[man] Extra right now, right?

-[man] Yeah. Yeah.
-[man] They're going.

The team's going.

[man] Well, it's--
we'll-- we'll need it.

[man] They're
gonna figure it out.

Do I have to leave? Okay.

Just make sure
I got all my stuff here.

I know I brought
other stuff in here,

but I guess it doesn't matter.

Oh, well.

[man] I think
I'm amazed by the organism.

They're small.

Lots of cells,
lots of bacteria cells.

[man] The ecological
and evolutionary

history of the Earth is
essentially a microbial story.

In general,
understanding microbes,

their diversity,
their evolutionary history

helps us
understand ourselves because

we are walking microbes,

we are walking
microbial communities.

Our cells
are chimeras of organisms

that were microbes
that joined forces together.

So that we detach ourself
from the microbial world

is irrational.

We are microbes.

[man] Like the single cells,
they can do a lot.

Yeah. Some of them have
all the functions

of a basically an animal
or a human being.

So it's just amazing
how their biochemistry is.

They're just fascinating me
all the time.

Oh, here.

Looks like getting
into another galaxy.

[indistinct]

[man] Work in Antarctica
has shown us

that deep below the surface
there are oases for life.

And that could also be
the case on other worlds.

There are a dozen places
in the solar system

where below thick ice covers,
there's water

and conditions that are
plausible for life to exist.

Understanding how life exists
somewhere else tells us

a lot about how we came to be.

-[woman] Okay.
-[man] I can't tell

-whether it's rolling or not.
-[woman] It is.

-See 11, 12 seconds.
-[man] That's fine.

[woman] 13, 14.

[man] You can tell and I can't.

[man] And the approaches
that we take to try to enter

those extreme environments
in the lakes down here,

you know, in a clean way,

also will bear on whatever
our future generations do

when we go and visit other
planetary bodies

to see what
those worlds are like.

[water gurgling]

To see what life could endure.

[static noise]

[woman] That's a lot of good
sediment on that camera.

-[man] That looks dry.
-Two hours and 32 minutes.

-[man] Hey.

[woman] Sorry it blocked
the view on the way up.

[woman] Wow, Tim,
check out that rock.

-Hey, Tony.
-Oh.

-Hook me up, man.
-It doesn't fit you.

-You have a big head.
-Yeah. Perfect.

[wind rushing]

[indistinct chatter]

You'll hit the bottom
at around 1084 to 1085.

Okay? And 1068 to 72
is the ice water interface.

So when you're coming back up,
crawl through there.

-[woman] Yeah.
-[man] Okay?

[man] Six meters.

[woman] I still don't see it.

[man] No, it's coming up.

[speaking indistinctly]

[woman] So we have
to have our gloves on

and hands warm and ready to go.

[woman]
They're not on tight, though.

[man] They're terribly loose.

[indistinct chatter]

...Push with all hands,
[indistinct].

[man] Can you bring it
up again, John?

Bring it up again.

[man] Why don't we trans--

try to transfer
the load right here?

-[man] Okay.
-[woman] Well,

we have to stay here.

[man] So this
is dangerous, right?

[man] The only one
I'm worried about is Amy's.

[man] Okay.
So mine is unfrozen now.

And if I move the ball,
it's gonna fall. All right?

-[woman] Yeah. Mine is too.
-[woman] Mine is too.

[man] You might
be able to flip that.

[man] We gonna lose this
if we're not careful.

-Yeah.
-[woman] I'm worr-- I just--

I think I'm gonna need somebody
else to put the bung in

'cause I feel like
my hands are frozen.

-[man] Yeah. Mine as well.
-[man] Yeah. Mine are too.

[man] And lower a little bit.
They still have inches here.

-Can we do that later?
-[man] Done.

Okay, let's get it up.

[woman]
I think I got it. I'm okay.

[indistinct chatter]

-[man] Say when you're ready.
-[man] Ready.

[man] Okay. Go for it.

Nice job.

[man] Got it?
Yeah. There you go, Amy.

Oh.

[woman] Three cap cores.

[cheering, laughs]

[woman] They're still watching.

[distant whirring]

[man] The tapes are ready
for you guys. Okay?

I'm gonna [indistinct]
right on here.

Yeah, Molly,
can I pass it to you?

[Molly] Yeah.

Oh, bubbles coming out.

It's been three years
of prep to get

three perfect sediment cores.

I'm very stoked.

We did it. [laughs]

Oh, well. Dirty hair,
dirty face. Great cores.

I'm happy.

-[indistinct chatter]
-[song playing on radio]

[man]
Taking some of the sediments

that we recovered
from one of the cores.

This one comes from 32 to 38
centimeters below the surface.

If I don't label
the hell out of these,

I will not know
what they are in four months.

I'm keeping it cold
in here because

these guys
don't like it when it's warm.

And a pain in the ass to grow.

[man] The sediment
looks great too.

Just wait you see it.

All right. Sed lab.

Don't you feel happy, you guys?

-Yeah.
-I'm so happy. [laughs]

Happy as a pig in mud, right?

Just happy as happy.
[man] Good.

Happy, happy.

Well, we just see
little fragments of diatom,

so we're really happy 'cause
that's what we're looking for.

That'll tell us
[indistinct] environments

and also ages.

Oh, why do I like diatoms?

I think like is probably
too mild of a word.

So there are some of us,
we love diatoms

because they are capturing

a history
that nobody else can see.

Every slide is
telling you what happened

at a certain time in history.

So I don't do anything
different than a historian.

I just have
a different alphabet.

It's like reading
a book that nobody else read

and the diatoms
are the language.

A diatom is
a single-celled algae.

They're very
sensitive indicators

of the conditions
in which they live.

So they tell us things about
how much sea ice there is,

they tell us
how warm and cold it was,

sunlight,
stratification, windiness,

nutrient content of the waters.

And so each one has

a very specific
environmental requirement.

Just like trees on land,
like maples.

You would know that you were
in, say, upstate New York.

And if you found palm trees,

you could say,
oh, I'm in Florida.

We can do the same thing
with diatoms.

And then the second thing

is that they tell us
when they lived.

So we can reconstruct
the time in which

there were marine waters
in this area

that's now covered by ice.

So it allows us
to reconstruct climate

and that's what
we're interested in.

How does
the world deglaciation?

How quickly,
when did it happen before?

When I was in college,
I tried a lot of different

kinds of research, but
they never resonated with me.

And then as
a senior in college,

I started working
with a climate group.

It didn't matter how tiny
your project was,

it fit into
the giant climate puzzle.

And so, even though
what I was doing

wasn't really big,
it fit into something big.

And so I never
looked back after that.

And so I became an expert.

It was challenging.

But now we have a really
strong polar diatom community.

-Rhizosolenia.
-[man] Yeah.

And there's a, uh,
[indistinct] on the side view.

[indistinct],
something like that.

I always call that
Grammatophora.

[man] That's okay too. [laughs]

I tell my students,
just say it with authority

and people will believe you.

It can be quantitative,

but there's
just a qualitative... role.

You know,
what does it look like?

How fragmented is it?

What's present? What's absent?

What do you think
you would've seen

that you don't see,
that tells you something too.

And our goal is to help
the grad students and postdocs

and make sure that
the skills that we learned

over the course of 35 years,
mostly alone, don't get lost.

[man] Take a look.

Wow...

[woman]
Studying subglacial lakes

gives us
a window into the past.

We're able to see the way
that Earth's climate system

has responded to changes
throughout earth's history

and project how the earth
will respond to future warming.

[man] It was thought that
these ice sheets were so large

that even small amounts
of climate change

wouldn't affect them.

And that really changed in 2002

when one of
the first ice shelfs collapsed

on the peninsula.

From then,
it became quite clear that

these large ice sheets

are actually
quite vulnerable to change.

[man] West Antarctica
has been anticipated

to be the least stable part
of the Antarctic ice sheet.

[man] It's viewed by many
as sort of a time bomb.

It would raise the sea level
approximately ten feet.

How soon that would happen
is probably one of

the largest questions
out there.

[pensive music continues]

[woman] The environmental
refugee question

eats at me a lot.

And I think we need to have
an idea of especially rates

if we're gonna think
about protecting people.

It's really
in the end about people.

[waves crashing]

I think it matters
that we know because

it matters that
we take responsibility

and it matters that
we change the things

that are within our control,
which are many.

And, um, yeah, it--

this is outside
the realm of normal

and it certainly has
the human fingerprint.

So we-- we can do something.

We can choose to do something.

[machine whirring]

[man] As these sediments
are deposited,

they would be deposited as if
you could imagine a layer cake,

one layer built
on top of another.

And as you move up
in those layers,

you're getting into younger
and younger sediment.

What more length does
is it gives us more context

and helps us understand
what's going on in the sediment

a little bit better.
So length is important

for, uh,
what we're trying to do.

That's what we're gonna hit
at 50 meters a minute.

[man on radio]
1075, preparing for impact.

Okay, you're up.
Now pull it. All stop.

[woman on radio]
So you guys know,

you have cheering squad
outside of the large tent?

[man] I don't know
that we want to know that.

[laughs]

Wait till we get mud up.

[man] There always
has been climate change.

That's a--
a well-known fact and we--

we geologists are the ones
who've unmasked that.

But we're also interested at
looking at the human timescale

and how the changes
that we're observing now

in the instrumental record
of sea level, of temperature,

of the amount of CO2
in the atmosphere relates

to what we can pull out of
ice cores and sediment cores.

These are the extents
that we want to go to,

to make sure that
we understand how our planet

is going to change as
a result of our actions

and how it has changed
in the past before,

it was sort of at the--
the whims of human actions.

So do you know, TR,
that since you're a kid

you watch movies
about time machines

and you thought it was
some fancy, fancy thing.

This is a time machine.

It allows us
to go back in time.

It's not just gunk.

[man]
There's no water in there.

I'm if wondering
it [indistinct] itself.

Might have been too soft

and then might have come out
of the catcher.

[woman]
I think sediment that came in

got pulled out and everything
came out with it.

So I don't think
we have a core.

But, that's happened before.

But it won't happen again.

You know, each time
you learn something new,

we'll just try it again.

[indistinct chatter]

We can't get it perfect

the way we would like
to do it in our backyard.

And we're--
if we do the best we can,

we're advancing science,
I guarantee you.

So just keep that in mind.
Um, so yeah.

We took two multi-cores
back to back

and then we tried
to take a big core,

but it took us four hours to
get the big core mounted

and then
three more hours to core.

And then we lost our core
when we were pulling it up.

But we get
to try again tomorrow.

So we live to core another day.

[man] Oh, not another day.

Do I have to come out?
It's comfortable.

Kinda trying
to stretch my back a little bit.

This, uh, but anyway.

No, I'm-- I get up and get
outta here, fast as I can.

[man] These are--
these are the values

from the accelerometers
in one of the cameras.

This one actually
is not running right.

These two are working.

There must be
something wrong with the, uh,

with the sensor here.

It helps that
I'm extremely tired.

-[laughs]
-[woman] Really?

No, it's terrible.

[laughs]

[whirring]

[man] It's gotten colder.

[man] Ten degrees lower.

It's amazing
what a difference that makes.

[man] It's almost
New Year's Eve.

It's-- it is New Year's Eve.

We have--
we have less than an hour.

We started the hour countdown.

Look at that.

We know exactly what time it is
thanks to this clock.

[laughter]

[man] It had to clock
into the wall right there.

[man] Okay. You should see that
bottom any second. Any second.

[man] Oh, whoa, whoa.

-Rock.
-[man] Wow.

[man] Rock reading with a--

[man] Here, fishy fishy.

I'm pretty tired.

I've had, like,
two hours of sleep

in the last 40 hours,
but it's okay.

Look at the rock.
We found a rock.

[laughs] Science.

[man] Here we go.

[all] Happy New Year!

[cheering]

It's not
New Year's here, though.

[laughter]

[man] It is in this room.

It's ten hours away.
We're 22 hours away still.

[man] I don't-- I don't agree.

-Disagree.
-He's wrong.

We still are on a longitude.

We're not at the pole.
We still have a longitude.

[man] It's 5:30.

[man] No, 6:30.

[man] 5:30.

Okay.

Is there a daylight
savings time in Antarctica?

I think we've
saved a lot of daylight.

Well, do they move their clocks?

No. Who's they?

The US Antarctic program.

Look how much
it's moved since 1:00.

[woman] Wow.

-[man] It's moving.
-[Ryan] Time.

[man] It just doesn't stop.

[laughs]

[woman] It's always moving.

It looks like it's not,
but the ice is always moving.

[man] The ice is moving
at just about a little bit

less than a-- a meter
a day towards the ocean.

[British man] If you want
to understand how ice flow

might change
under changing climates,

you've gotta factor in what's
going on at the bed of the ice.

[man] Ice sometimes
flows like honey,

but if you add water
to the bottom, like the--

the rivers and the lakes
that are here,

it's like
you're pouring honey on a--

on a greased
cookie sheet. Right?

And it slips.

[man] That's part of the reason

why our drilling
will work so well.

If the ice was static,
you'd be drilling

into the same sediment
all the time.

But, you know,
you drill into the sediment,

get a sediment core,
the ice moves along, you know,

and then we could drill
into new sediment

and then the ice moves along

and then
we drill into new sediment.

["I Wanna Dance With Somebody"
by Whitney Houston ]

♪ Oh ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Whoo ♪

[Ryan] You have to dance
or it won't work.

We're bringing good energy
to this project,

bringing good energy to
this coring device right here.

Chasing away any ill things
that might be here

to, uh, surprise us.

-[man] Come on [indistinct].
-Yep.

-[man] Whoo!
-[woman] Yeah!

["I'm So Excited"
by The Pointer Sisters]

♪ Let's get excited,
we just can't hide it ♪

Ooh, Molly!

♪ I'm about to lose control
and I think I like it ♪

[crosstalk]

♪ I know, I know, I know,
I know, I know, I want you ♪

[man] Core approaching
the borehole.

Lot of cold on that line.

[whirring]

[man] No pops yet?
Oh, there's one.

[sighs]

[man] That's
a scary coring system, man.

[chuckles]

And our whole fate
is tied to a string.

We're gonna send something
that we call a messenger down

and the messenger just clips
onto the rope

and we just let it drop.

Oh, man.
It's a fucking heavy weight.

That's called the Go Devil.

And it will go
like a devil down the hole,

but it also bends the mechanism
that cuts the rope.

So we're a little concerned
that it might hit

it so hard that it could
bend the metal and deform stuff.

God damn, I hope this works.

-[man] Me too.
-All right, man.

[man] Here we go.

Get away.

[man] It goes
zooming down the rope

and it's going
to smash into something

at the bottom of the rope,
which is attached to the core.

And it's gonna release a weight,
which then cuts another rope

and allows the core to free fall

about 40 feet to the bottom
to get maximum velocity

so that we can really
punch into the sediments.

[man] We wanna see
a click on that.

Uh, you can cut all
the footage of this part.

[man] No, they need it.

You need-- you need to develop
the suspense in the audience.

[man] My freakin' heart's
jumping out of my chest.

[man] I can see it.

If people knew how to do this
they would've done it before.

[sighs]

Go, Devil.

Oh, there
we go. That worked, baby.

That worked.

[man] That was, uh,
that was too many--

[laughter]

[man] All right,
so can we start coming up easy?

There it is.

Oh yeah, baby,
I'm freeing them now.

It was cold
down there for a while.

[man] You're talking
to the rope or me?

[laughs] You're not my baby.

[laughs]

[loud whirring]

This thing
could pick anything up.

God, Amy, I hope
this is what it says it is.

And the catchers are closed.

Please be core. Please
be core. Please be core. Oh.

-Yes!
-It's a perfect core.

Filled to the top, Amy.

Filled to the top.

Everybody else was super happy
about their own success,

but there was this twinge of,

well, I'm not
gonna be completely happy

unless the rest
of the group is successful.

Has anybody got a tape measure?

Tape measure?

[all] Woo!

-[cheering]
-Longest core.

[British man] Longest core.

1.7 meters.

This is the longest, the longest
core from a subglacial lake.

We were the last group
to really reach success.

So when we were successful,

I think it just completed
everybody's mission.

So I-- I think I like
the sense of a shared mission.

That really matters to me.

Let me put it on your nose. Let
me put it on your nose. Please.

[laughter]

-[man] Good job.
-[woman] Thanks. You too.

[woman] I'm just a girl
from the Midwestern US.

I never would've thought that I
would be on a project like this,

pulling up samples from
a thousand meters below ice.

[man] I can take it
if you're good.

3:00 AM, playing with mud,
living the absolute dream.

I think I would tell someone who

looks up to the kind
of work that I do,

that there's space for them

and there's always space for
more people in work like this.

Science and Antarctic research
can only be improved

with more perspectives
looking at it.

No tripping. You don't
wanna lose your samples.

[laughs]

[man] I can't see
it going much longer.

This won't last forever.
That water's cooling 'em.

And when it starts,
it'll freeze in rather quickly,

I'm afraid.

And I guess it depends how,
if you're adverse to risk,

I'd quit. And if not,
take another one.

You never know. It's Antarctica,
could always bite you.

[wind blowing]

[woman] Yeah, that's no good.

Okay.

[indistinct]

[wind blowing]

[man] Our instrument is really
heavy so the ice won't stop it.

But we didn't realize that
the ice could fill up in it.

So we have tens
of centimeters of ice

in our core barrel that
just stopped any sediment

from entering, um, last
night's longer coring attempt.

[man] Quite the ice.

[man] Uh, and which one's this?

That's-- [indistinct]
up on the water interfacing.

We're just looking to see
if there's any ice in it or not.

Doesn't look to me
like it is thin ice.

It looks
to me like it's more than

a millimeter
or two or three or four.

Or even a centimeter thick.

And you're not gonna
break it with that four pound--

Four pound weight.

[man] It's laying down.
Yeah, that's frozen. Shit.

[whirring]

[indistinct chatter]

[whirring]

[man] We'll go back and no one
will even ask what you've done.

Yeah. We write
the papers and we--

we're scientists
and that's what you do.

Yeah. But--
but we did have our, uh,

our high five moment, didn't we?

Yeah. And that's pretty cool.

So this little town
was pretty, pretty happy.

-[producer] What are they doing?
-Okay.

What are they doing?
They're taking it all down.

No more samples.
The borehole's closed.

It froze shut
it went back to Antarctica.

Well, I'm kind of
an adrenaline junkie

and this
is pretty high level. Huh?

Do you have a tear
in your eye about all this?

Of course,
I have a tear in my eye.

This was, uh,
it's bittersweet, John.

Hopefully, we'll--
if we don't do this again,

-we'll do something--
-See you at [indistinct].

[laughs] Oh, man. My next life.

I-- I'm only
on my second life now.

All right.
But it is-- it is good.

Yeah. I wouldn't
trade it for anything.

[man] Yeah. I think
this could be my last

big deep field
subglacial expedition.

They take four,
five years to plan.

The younger scientists,

hopefully
they'll take it and run,

you know,
and discover more stuff.

Yeah. It's not legacy,
just passing on the knowledge.

So you make a discovery,
pass it on, build someone else.

I'm not saying
I'm passing it on yet, either.

I'm-- I'm still on the right
side of the dirt, kiddo.

[laughs]

Or-- or-- or the ice,
maybe I should say.

It's great,
but I wanna do it all over.

I'm pretty greedy.

You know, it's-- it's like
going to the United States

and looking at one lake or pond

and then using that to describe
all of the United States.

That's a hard thing.

[indistinct chatter]

Yeah. I think it goes this way.

[ice crunching]

["Dusty Old Dust"
by Woody Guthrie]

♪ So long,
it's been good to know yuh ♪

♪ So long,
it's been good to know yuh ♪

♪ So long,
it's been good to know yuh ♪

♪ This dusty old dust
is a-gettin' my home ♪

♪ And I've got
to be driftin' along ♪

[airplane engine roaring]

[woman] And then, then
comes the hard work. Right?

You know,
the weeks, months, years

at the microscope in the lab,
doing the analyses.

What next?

I don't know. Go home first.

Go home. Say hi to your family.

Yeah. Hard to believe.

-Yeah. Yeah.
-Sad?

Sad. Happy. Both.

Yeah, me too.

I think we did a good job.

I think-- and I also think
we're a good team.

[man] 800 pounds of samples
are going out today.

800 pounds.

And we're gonna turn all that
water and sediment into numbers.

Well, I'm gonna go outside,
get some fresh air

and look at the big airplane.

Everyone became a team.

It's a team.

Truly altruistic group.

And I hope the data that
we get outta here will, uh,

change the way
they think about this continent.

And, uh, set a precedence
for future research.

[pensive music playing]

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