Chinese Crew Extracts Rock from East Antarctica Team Faced Race Against Time to Retrieve the First Rock Sample from the Region in 60 Years

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Members of the Chinese Antarctic expedition saw their research season cut short after their transport, the icebreaker Xuelong, was damaged by an iceberg.

GEOLOGY Chinese crew extracts rock from East Antarctica Team faced race against time to retrieve the first rock sample from the region in 60 years.

BY ALEXANDRA WITZE beneath East Antarctica in more than 60 years. in Changchun, northeast China. The polar scientists behind the experiment, Racing against the clock, the drillers collision with a rogue iceberg earlier this who were drilling near the Chinese research reached their target on 10 February, pulling year jeopardized several experiments station of Zhongshan in East Antarctica, were up a 7-centimetre-long rock core, which they dependent on China’s most recent among many who were forced to cut short hope to study for a rare glimpse of the region’s AAntarctic voyage — including an effort to drill their field season last month. Their ride home, geology. The last sample taken from beneath through almost 200 metres of ice to collect a the icebreaker Xuelong, had been damaged East Antarctica’s ice was collected by Russian sample of the underlying bedrock. The work when it hit an iceberg off West Antarctica, and scientists in 1957. Talalay’s team then scram- was an early test of an ambitious plan to extract needed to depart early. bled to pack up camp the following day, and by rock from an enormous mountain range that is “We all worried whether time was enough 13 February was on-board the Xuelong. buried beneath a kilometre or more of ice. The to reach bedrock,” says project leader Pavel The iceberg collision also disrupted other project yielded the first rock core collected from Talalay, a drilling engineer at Jilin University Chinese Antarctic projects. In January, a

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South Korean research ship had to rescue biggest geological mysteries: the Gamburtsev engineer at the University of Glasgow. Chinese workers — whom the Xuelong was Mountains, a range that is similar to the Alps To retrieve their rock core, Talalay’s team, supposed to pick up — stranded on an island in but about which little is known because it lies led in the field by drilling engineer Zhang Nan Terra Nova Bay, where they had been building so deep beneath the ice. Like ice cores, which of Jilin University, set up its drill about 12 kilo- the country’s fifth Antarctic research station. tell the story of changing environmental con- metres south of Zhongshan during December Other members of the Chinese Antarctic ditions as the ice formed, rock cores reveal the and January. The group used ice-penetrating expedition squeezed in as much science as story of a region’s geology. radar to locate the top of a hill buried beneath possible before departing on the Xuelong. Antarctica’s vast ice sheet covers almost the the ice, and aimed for that subglacial peak. One group installed a meteorological station entire continent. The Gamburtsev Mountains After drilling through the ice, the research- about 100 kilometres from Zhongshan to col- are known to exist because they appear in radar ers lowered a rock-drilling tool into the hole lect data that will improve Antarctic weather images, but are a geological puzzle because and retrieved the short rock core. The dark, forecasts. And the Xue Ying aircraft, China’s they occur in the middle of the continent, blocky cylinder appears to comprise a roughly only polar-research aeroplane, gathered where researchers fifty–fifty mix of ice and a metamorphic rock geophysical observations of the ice sheet. “I’m sure they’re think there has been called gneiss, Talalay says. China is expanding its scientific activities in rightfully little tectonic activity The team’s success is “a significant accom- Antarctica, an ambition outlined in the coun- excited to have for more than half a plishment”, says John Goodge, a geologist at try’s five-year plan that began in 2016. This core in hand.” billion years. Drilling the University of Minnesota in Duluth who is season, workers finished a second stage of directly into the Gam- helping to develop a US drill meant to quickly construction at a research station that opened burtsevs would allow geologists to begin testing bore through the Antarctic ice and reach the in 2014 about 500 kilometres from Zhongshan. ideas of how the mysterious range formed. bedrock below. “I’m sure they are rightfully China has also announced plans to build an Drilling in Antarctica is hard because of the excited to have core in hand,” he says. airstrip on the ice near Zhongshan. cold temperatures and the logistical difficulties Drilling into the Gamburtsev Mountains of transporting large amounts of equipment is a long-standing goal of the Chinese and WHAT LIES BENEATH (J. Wang et al. Polar Sci. 9, 208–220; 2015). So US Antarctic research programmes, Goodge Next year, if Talalay and his colleagues can far, scientists have recovered only a handful of notes. Such rock samples could help to reveal secure funding, they plan to take their drill rock cores from beneath the Antarctic ice sheet. how long the Antarctic ice sheet has existed to the site of this future runway. They want These include an 8-metre-long core from the above them, and whether there are any buried to drill through the ice to help better monitor Pirrit Hills area of West Antarctica, collected by lakes or basins that could preserve evidence of how ice flows in the area and where crevasses US researchers in the 2016–17 season (O. Spec- life beneath the ice. are likely to form, Talalay says. Working at the tor et al. Cryosphere 12, 2741–2757; 2018). But getting through more than a kilometre site would also allow them to take their drill to Last month, a team from the University of of ice — while working in extreme cold, at high the next level of testing, because the ice there Glasgow, UK, was hoping to collect a small elevation, and far from an established major is 600–800 metres thick — substantially more sample of bedrock from the bottom of a hole research base — is extremely difficult. So the than they drilled through this year. drilled in West Antarctica by the British Ant- Gamburtsevs may have to wait a while. “Can The team hopes to eventually use the drill arctic Survey. But technical problems, includ- it be done?” Goodge asks. “I think so. But to penetrate more than 1 kilometre of ice to ing misbehaving motors, scuttled the plan, says because of the many technical challenges it extract a rock core from one of Antarctica’s team leader Patrick Harkness, an ice-drilling isn’t going to happen soon.” ■

WORKPLACE of respondents who had been harassed had not reported the incident to their employer. Nearly one-third of respondents also said their workplace’s policies on preventing sexual har- Harassment rife in assment were ineffective. And 33% thought procedures for addressing reported incidences of sexual misconduct were inadequate (see ‘Sexual harassment in science’). Australian science Policies on how to prevent sexual harassment and bullying, and how to handle inci- dents after they occur, have been available for The first national survey of science workplaces reveals that several years, says Wafa El-Adhami, executive sexual harassment is widespread and infrequently reported. director of the Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) initiative in Canberra. But the results suggest that there is poor aware- BY BIANCA NOGRADY the public sector or non-profit organizations, ness of these policies, or they aren’t being as well as academia. Almost 300 science profes- implemented effectively, El-Adhami says. She early half of the female scientists who sionals answered the questions in an online poll advocates greater accountability for organiza- responded to an Australian survey on conducted by Science & Technology Australia tions, to ensure that policies work. “You lift the sexual misconduct at work have expe- (STA), an organization based in Canberra that awareness as you make managers and senior Nrienced sexual harassment. In a report released lobbies for the interests of scientists. leaders accountable,” she says. on 1 March, 10% of male scientists also said Previous surveys of students in Australia, The survey was carried out over two weeks they had been sexually harassed at work. the United States and the United Kingdom in late January and early February by the The poll (see go.nature.com/2uh7oys) repre- have found widespread harassment at univer- STA, which represents about 70,000 scien- sents the first investigation into the prevalence sities. The latest results show that harassment tists. Nearly 60% of respondents worked in of sexual harassment among Australian sci- is rife across all types of scientific workplace. academia; the rest worked in the government entists and technologists working in industry, The survey found that around two-thirds (25%), the private sector (12%) or non-profit