After battling huge swells and sub-zero temperatures, Australian researchers are back on home soil with crucial information about an Antarctic glacier rapidly melting and little understood.
The main goal of the 63-day operation aboard icebreaker Nuyina was to examine the Denman Glacier, which has retreated 5km in the past 20 years.
If the 100km-long glacier was to melt entirely, it would raise global sea levels by about 1.5m.
"It is one of the fastest retreating glaciers in East Antarctica," the trip's science coordinator Damien Stringer said.
"It is vital we understand the processes driving that change."
The new data from the under-studied region, particularly in relation to warm water flows around the glacier, will challenge and help refine existing models, Dr Stringer said.
The team was able to get closer than expected to the glacier's "tongue", the point where it flows into an ice shelf, partly due to low summer sea ice.
"That did mean we had some spectacular views of the glacier itself," said Dr Stringer, who was on his first Antarctic journey.
"It was mesmerising. The excitement of the first iceberg just continued throughout, no two icebergs are ever the same."
Also retrieved along with the data were sediment cores dating back 500,000 years, along with sea spiders, sea stars and octopuses - some of which could be newly discovered species.
Expeditioners were also lucky enough to spot a rare jade iceberg.
A sea "butterfly" nicknamed Clio, technically a sea snail that appears to flutter as it swims through the water, was drawn into the icebreaker using a wet well.
It produced eggs in the ship's aquarium, allowing researchers to document pteropod egg development for the first time.
Dr Stringer said the first scientific papers from the journey would be published in six months once data started being properly analysed.
Despite several blizzards and 50-knot winds, the $528 million vessel exceeded expectations on its first dedicated science voyage, Dr Stringer said.
The Nuyina traversed swells as high as 8m, while the temperature reached as low as minus 20C, made worse by the wind chill factor.
