The team also hopes to take samples of mud from the bottom of the lake, to better understand the geological history of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and Earth's past climate.

MSN: Mission to drill into buried Antarctic lake hits a snag

Several hours from the South Pole, in the barren expanses of western Antarctica, a small team of American researchers has just finished their second field-season with the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide Ice Core project.

ECONOMIST: The South Pole as location and metaphor