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Antarctica’s next deep ice core, drilling down to ice from 130,000 years ago, will be carried out by a multi-institutional U.S. team at Hercules Dome, a location hundreds of miles from today’s coastline and a promising site to provide key evidence about the possible last collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Hunting for the perfect patch of ice can be a herculean task.

Knut Christianson, of the University of Washington, spent three weeks with his research team in a barren and remote part of Antarctica, scouring the landscape for the perfect spot. The researchers think that the region, known as Hercules Dome, can help scientists predict the future of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, by digging up the secrets of its ancient past.

Scientists have long suspected that 125,000 years ago, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapsed, drowning a world not much warmer than today in 3 meters of rising tides. But hard evidence of whether such a collapse occurred—and if it did, how fast the melt went—has remained scarce.

From Nature: Sometime this month, scientists in Antarctica plan to start up their snowmobiles and begin radar surveys of a thick ridge of ice called Hercules Dome. The dome — which sits 400 kilometres from the South Pole, between East and West Antarctica — could provide crucial clues to the future of the continent’s vast ice sheet.