CR
Cryospheric Sciences

Craig Stevens

Craig Stevens is an oceanographer based in New Zealand with a joint position as Principal Scientist Marine Physics at Earth Sciences New Zealand and as Professor in Physics at the University of Auckland. His research focus is on the ocean’s role in climate with work on mixing in extreme environments such as the ocean beneath ice shelves and sea ice. He grew up in Kaurna country in South Australia and studied in Australia and Canada before moving to New Zealand in the 1990s. He has held offices of the President of the New Zealand Association of Scientists and Chair of the Aotearoa Wave and Tidal Energy Association. Contact Email: craig.stevens@earthsciences.nz

What Lies Beneath an Ice Shelf

, and May 22, 2026
an orange, rugged large tent is in an arctic landscape. researchers in cold-eather gear gather at the mouth of the tent.
Hot-water drilling operations at the HWD2 site on the central Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica, where a borehole was created to access the ocean beneath the ice. [Credit: Craig Stevens/ESNZ]

Beneath Antarctica’s largest ice shelf lies a hidden ocean—dark, cold, and almost impossible to reach. Scientists drilled through hundreds of metres of ice to access it, revealing a world that plays a crucial role in how ice shelves melt. Years later, we had the chance to explore this unseen environment—not in the field, but through the data that the expedition left behind. Antarctica’s ice shelf ...[Read More]