Antarctica Fiber Optics
![Base camp on the McMurdo Ice Shelf floats on a 200-meter- thick ice shelf, which in turn floats on the ocean which is one kilometer deep at that point. (David Holland)](https://gdb.voanews.com/9d1caa9c-159c-4e29-9e8d-eee4915ce071_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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Base camp on the McMurdo Ice Shelf floats on a 200-meter- thick ice shelf, which in turn floats on the ocean which is one kilometer deep at that point. (David Holland)
![Nine hundred meters of fiber cable are being lowered to the ocean below (center right) through a just-completed borehole. A second borehole is just being started in the white drilling tent (far left). (Victor Zagorodnov)](https://gdb.voanews.com/614d77fa-9503-49d4-ab88-4f978b883991_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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Nine hundred meters of fiber cable are being lowered to the ocean below (center right) through a just-completed borehole. A second borehole is just being started in the white drilling tent (far left). (Victor Zagorodnov)
![The white tent houses the combination core and melting drill used to penetrate the 200-meter thick ice shelf to gain access to the ocean below. (Scott Tyler)](https://gdb.voanews.com/f6b3a73c-3bd2-47b6-9b6d-f4843f3afbfe_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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The white tent houses the combination core and melting drill used to penetrate the 200-meter thick ice shelf to gain access to the ocean below. (Scott Tyler)
![A sample of McMurdo Ice Shelf ice retrieved during the drilling of the access boreholes. (David Holland)](https://gdb.voanews.com/d7c904f2-ff39-4dd2-835f-612a31a31023_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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A sample of McMurdo Ice Shelf ice retrieved during the drilling of the access boreholes. (David Holland)