Damian Carrington

But what they'd noticed is that some natural holes occasionally occur

And the meltwater drains away down into the sea below and then leaves the white ice exposed again, reflecting the sun.

So they thought they'd try and drill a few test holes just to see how that worked.

And it was really interesting.

So they drilled just five centimetre diameter holes and it was like pulling the plug out.

You know, the water started swirling around and then within half an hour, 45 minutes, it had broadened down to about the size of a dinner plate.

And when we went back the next day, it was like the size of a manhole cover and it was just swirling away, draining this water down.

So they, again, just at the start of looking into how effective that is.

But the kind of interesting thing about that particular tactic is that even though it only works in that short period during the meltwater season, it's just really easy to do.

An underwater drain could be poking holes up through and moving on.

Early days, important to stress that.

But they think that this thickening of the ice could help it last maybe seven to ten days longer.

And that may be enough to have some effect, we'll see.

Absolutely.

So, you know, what they're trying to do here is just do step by step.

So first of all, they've shown they can thicken the ice.

They've shown that thickened ice lasts a bit longer.

Whether that has, you know, an impact in the long run, we'll have to wait and see.

But they've still got to do studies about the ecology.

But then the feasibility, obviously, is the really big thing.