The Million Year Ice Core (MYIC) Project is an Australian Antarctic Program initiative to recover a continuous ice core spanning the mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT; 700-1250kyr). In the 2025/26 season, work continued at the Dome C North (DCN) site 9 km NE of Concordia Station and 45 km NE of the European BE-OIC site at Little Dome C, with borehole casing installed and deep drilling commenced using the AAD deep drill system.

One-dimensional ice modelling, constrained by ice penetrating radar and isochrones traced back to the EDC ice core site, indicate an age above the basal ice at DCN potentially reaching 2 Ma and a resolution at 1.5 Ma of 10 000 yr/m or better (Chung et al., 2023).

Laboratory capabilities for MYIC are directed at measurements required to test hypotheses on the cause of the MPT. Ice core continuous flow analysis (CFA) for conductivity, particles and soluble ions are underway, with fraction-collected aliquots taken for measurement of cosmogenic 10Be. Gas and water isotope measurements on the returned ice are scheduled to start this year. The new gas laboratory developed for the project combines uses small volume samples to measure CO2, δ13C-CO2, CH4, and N2O, as well as the main air isotopes. There are opportunities for measurements of other parameters through national and international collaboration.