Almost at the end of the season! In the ninth episode of Into the Core, we talk with Simona Pierdominici, a member of the ICDP Operational Support Group hosted at GFZ in Germany. She is an expert in borehole logging and has participated in several projects of the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP).

In this episode, our team asks Simona about her field experiences and her beginnings within ICDP projects. Can you imagine celebrating a birthday party in Antarctica or getting lost in the endless white landscape surrounded only by ice?

Turn up the volume and enjoy these stories and much more in this new episode of Into the Core.

Hosts: Rodrigo Martínez-Abarca and Romina Achaga
Guest: Simona Pierdominici

Into the Core is supported by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) and is an initiative of the Early Career Researchers Network. Original idea by Marta Marchegiano.

Copyright-free background music, 2026.

In the eighth episode of Into the Core, we talk with Arne Ulfers, a researcher at the LIAG – Institute for Applied Geophysics in Germany. He is an expert in borehole logging, with experience in several projects of the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP).

In this episode, Arne explains how these techniques help us identify and characterize the sediments and rocks beneath a region, allowing scientists to better understand their properties and geometry for a wide range of applications.

We also hear memorable field stories, from his arrival in Antarctica as part of the SWAIS2C project to the time he found himself caught in the middle of a storm on Lake Nam Co (Tibetan Plateau), more than 30 km from the shore and at over 4,700 meters above sea level.

Curious to know how he made it through? Join us to find out.

Host: Rodrigo Martínez-Abarca
Guest: Arne Ulfers

Into the Core is supported by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) and is an initiative of the Early Career Researchers Network. Original idea by Marta Marchegiano.

Copyright-free background music, 2026.

The Into the Core team returns once again to the IPA-IAL conference in Aix-les-Bains for this seventh episode, where we sit down with Maarten Van Daele.

In this episode, we explore how sediments can be key to understanding past events such as paleotsunamis and paleoearthquakes. We also talk about Maarten’s experience during the ICDP Lake Challa drilling campaign and share some memorable field stories — including the time he and his team lost the platform’s floats while drilling a lake in Chile.

Curious to know how they solved it? Join us to find out.

Maarten Van Daele is an associate professor at Ghent University in Belgium, specializing in sedimentology, geohazards, and limnogeology. His research focuses on lake and marine sediment archives, particularly turbidites as records of past earthquakes, tsunamis, and other extreme events. He is involved in ICDP projects such as DeepCHALLA. In addition, he has worked on unique sites like Iceberg Lake in Alaska, which drained in 1999 through an outburst flood, exposing sedimentary deposits that allow the study of historical earthquakes and other past events in outcrops.

Host: Rodrigo Martínez-Abarca
Guest: Maarten Van Daele
Edition: Romina Achaga

Into the Core is supported by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) and is an initiative of the Early Career Researchers Network. Original idea by Marta Marchegiano.

Copyright-free background music, 2026.

We kick off the second half of the first season of Into the Core with this sixth episode, featuring Jonathan Obrist-Farner.

In this conversation, our team explores Jonathan’s unique journey — from his early studies in psychology to his transition into geosciences, a path that has led him to propose his first ICDP project. The episode also includes a heartfelt tribute to Andy Cohen, whose legacy we honor and remember.

But the journey hasn’t always been easy. Jonathan shares challenging field experiences, including the demanding work of walking more than 6 kilometers multiple times a day to help build a drilling platform in the lakes of Guatemala.

Curious to hear more about this amazing story? Join us for this inspiring episode.

Jonathan is an assistant professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T), originally from Guatemala. He is a geologist and geophysicist with a background in psychology, and the Principal Investigator of the recently approved ICDP project LIBRE (Lake Izabal Basin). His research focuses on sedimentology, stratigraphy, and paleoclimatology, with a particular interest in the evolution of sedimentary basins and the tectonic, climatic, and anthropogenic controls that shape them.

Hosts: Rodrigo Martínez-Abarca and Romina Achaga
Guest: Jonathan Obrist-Farner

Into the Core is supported by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) and is an initiative of the Early Career Researchers Network. Original idea by Marta Marchegiano.

Copyright-free background music, 2026.

The Into the Core team continues recording in Aix-les-Bains, interviewing scientists involved in ICDP projects.

In this fifth episode, Daniel Ariztegui shares stories and lessons from his years of experience in scientific drilling — including the time he had to meet with royalty to request permission to drill, only to be told: “Do not touch the lake water.”

Curious how they managed to solve it? Join us to find out.

Daniel is an Argentine researcher currently based in Switzerland. His work focuses on sedimentology of drill cores and includes experience in seismic analysis and geochemical proxies, such as organic matter isotopes, to reconstruct past environmental and climate changes.

Host: Rodrigo Martínez-Abarca

Guest: Daniel Ariztegui

"Into the Core" is supported by the International Continental Drilling Program (ICDP) and an initiative of the Early Career Researchers Network. Original idea by Marta Marchegiano.

Copyright-free background music, 2026.

We continue recording from IPA-IAL 2025 in Aix-les-Bains for the fourth episode of Into the Core. This time, we are joined by Liseth Pérez Alvarado, a senior scientist originally from Guatemala and currently based in Kiel, Germany.

Liseth investigates the clues that ostracods — small crustaceans living in the water column — leave behind in lacustrine and marine sediments. She has been involved in several ICDP projects, including MexiDrill Chalco in Mexico, Lake Petén Itzá in Guatemala, and the upcoming Lake Izabal drilling project.

In this episode, we talk about her field experiences, her scientific journey, and some unforgettable stories from her student days — including the time she lost a boat engine during fieldwork.

Host: Rodrigo Martínez-Abarca
Edition: Romina Achaga
Starring: Liseth Pérez Alvarado

"Into the Core" is supported by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) and an initiative of the Early Career Researchers Network. Original idea by Marta Marchegiano.

Copyright-free background music, 2026.

In this third episode of Into the Core, the team records live from the IPA-IAL 2025 conference in Aix-les-Bains, France, where we ask scientists to share their funniest field stories.

Our first guest at the conference comes all the way from Spain: Blas Valero, researcher at the Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología in Zaragoza. A sedimentologist, paleoclimatologist, and passionate science communicator, Blas shares some of the unusual traditions he and his team carry out after completing a lake-drilling campaign.

Host: Rodrigo Martínez-Abarca
Starring: Blas Valero

"Into the Core" is supported by the International Continental Drilling Program (ICDP) and an initiative of the Early Career Researchers Network. Original idea by Marta Marchegiano.

Copyright-free background music, 2026.

In the second episode of Into the Core, we are joined by someone very special — the driving force behind this podcast and a scientist pushing the boundaries of proxy development in paleolimnology.
Dr. Marta Marchegiano, researcher at the University of Granada, shares unforgettable moments from the field, including an unexpected explosion during a campaign.
Join us for a conversation full of science, stories, and inspiration.

Hosts: Rodrigo Martinez-Abarca and Romina Achaga

Starring: Marta Marchegiano

"Into the Core" is supported by the International Continental Drilling Program (ICDP) and an initiative of the Early Career Researchers Network.

Copyright-free background music, 2026.