Engineers use hot water to drill two kilometre hole in Antarctic ice

The so-called BEAMISH project (Basal conditions on Rutford Ice Stream: Bed Access, Monitoring and Ice Sheet History) has been 20 years in the planning and was attempted in 2004 without success.
The 11-person team, which includes experts from the Universities of Swansea, UCL, Bristol, and Aberystwyth, and NASA-JPL – broke through to the sediment 2152 meters below the surface on Tuesday 8 January after a 63-hour long drilling operation.
The drilling system used by BAS – which is the world leader in hot water drilling technology – used a petrol-fuelled generator and water-heaters powered by aviation fuel to heat the drill water to around 90 °C. High-pressure pumps were then used to push the hot water down the drill hose.