For millions of years, some of the most inaccessible secrets on Earth remained hidden under the Antarctica. They were not in caves, nor in remote mountains, but under kilometers of ice, in lakes isolated from light, air and direct contact with the surface.
One of those places is Qilin subglacial lakelocated in East Antarctica. There, a team from the 42nd Chinese expedition managed to complete a hot water drilling that reached 3,413 meters deep, according to the state agency Xinhua based on data from the Ministry of Natural Resources of China. China.
The mark surpasses the previous international record for hot water drilling in polar regions, which was 2.540 metros.
What was the objective of this historical test
The test was completed on February 5, 2026 in the Qilin Lake area, a subglacial body of water covered by more than 3,000 meters of ice and located about 120 kilometers from the Chinese Antarctic station Taishan.
The main objective was to test a deep drilling system with hot water and create clean accesswithout contamination, for future direct observations and for the eventual collection of water and sediment samples from the lake bed.
The technique consists of dmelt ice using water at high temperature and pressure. Unlike traditional mechanical methods, it allows for faster progress, opening larger diameter boreholes and reducing the risk of introducing external fluids into extremely sensitive ecosystems.
China Daily He also highlighted that the trial aimed to solve challenges of operation at low temperatures, contamination control and precise handling of hoses and equipment at great depths.
The scientific interest is enormous. Antarctic subglacial lakes remain sealed under extreme conditions: total darkness, high pressure, low temperatures and nutrient shortages. That is why they are considered natural laboratories to study ancient environmental changes, the evolution of possible life forms in extreme environments and the behavior of ice sheets in the face of climate change.
Qilin Lake is listed in the Composite Gazetteer of AntarcticaAntarctic geographical name base linked to the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research, as a subglacial lake on Princess Elizabeth Land.
