Camera dropped down 350-foot Antarctica hole makes extraordinary discovery

A camera that was dropped 305 feet through a hole in the ice in Antarctica has made an amazing discovery.

The natural world continues to amaze experts with new discoveries being made all the time. Bizarre underwater structures have baffled scientists, while strange rocks under the Pacific have hinted at how life on Earth began.

Yet another discovery came in the Antarctic, when experts dropped a camera 305 feet through a hole in the sea ice to examine the geological history of the ice sheets.

While some layers of sea ice close to the surface freeze and thaw, down in the depths there are some sheets of ice that have remained frozen near-permanently for centuries, and they hold a whole host of information valuable to scientists.

In a clip posted on TikTok, PhD student Austin Carter explained that his research group, from the Center for Old Ice Exploration (COLDEX), drilled an ice core (hole) in the ice at the Allan Hills Blue Ice Area.

The terrifying video showed the camera plummeting down the ice core in the East Antarctic Ice Sheet at dazzling speed, showing the different layers of ice that exist the further down it went.

Carter explained that the ice there is some of the oldest to have been identified on the planet, at 2.7 million years old.

The study of the ice, Carter said, can help us learn more about “the fundamental properties of our climate system”.

But, the eerie clip left some TikTokers scared.

One wrote: “Honestly this was really scary.”

“Why do I feel claustrophobic lol,” another asked.

Someone else said: “Bro imagine getting dropped in there.”

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