From ancient ice to hidden lakes, new research reveals the frozen continent as never before. In Antarctica's Dry Valleys, an expedition seeks the world's oldest ice and a potential treasure trove of information about past climate conditions. Nearly 650 miles and a world away at Lake Whillans, a cadre of scientists drilled through half a mile of ice to find the first signs of life in a subglacial lake.
Our writer follows in the footsteps of a geologist determined to unlock the valleys’ many secrets
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Researchers first glimpsed the bottom of a subglacial lake using a robotic mini-sub
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Experience the beauty — and daily routine — of life as an Antarctic researcher
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How investigating subglacial lakes could inform our search for life elsewhere in the solar system
Almost 10 percent of Earth's land sits locked under glacial ice, where humans have never ventured
Mud sees the light of day for first time in over a hundred thousand years
The world's loneliest landscape comes to life in these time-lapse videos
Home to what’s believed to be the world’s oldest ice, the Dry Valleys also hold clues about Earth's climatic past and possible future.
This series of time-lapse videos reveals the stunning beauty and grandeur of one of Earth's most remote locations.
Experience one of the few surface ice-free areas of Antarctica — a landscape as inhospitable to humans as it is valuable to scientific research — through the lens of a recent expedition.
This unique landscape attracts researchers from around the world to study microbe evolution, scars of geological disasters and even how glaciers behaved on Mars.
An action-packed expedition unfolds as researchers race against time to drill into Lake Whillans.
Photos capture the grit and glory as the first sediment samples from Lake Whillans are painstakingly brought to the surface.