BASE, the Barberton Archean Surface Environments project, is an ICDP drilling effort in the Barberton Greenstone Belt of South Africa. Scientists drilled multiple boreholes at five sites through the Moodies Group rocks, which are about 3.2 billion years old and formed in a shallow coastal setting. In total they drilled around 3.1 kilometers of rock and recovered about 2.9 kilometers of core, with high core recovery. This ancient, well‑preserved shoreline record gives researchers a rare, high‑resolution view of early Earth: the landscape, how oceans and the land interacted, and how life might have existed and influenced its environment. By examining tiny features inside the rocks, scientists hope to reconstruct how the atmosphere and surface conditions evolved during the Archean and to place these South African rocks in a global context, comparing them with other ancient rocks such as Australia’s Pilbara. The work advances our understanding of when, where, and how early life and Earth’s environment were connected.

Keywords: Africa, South Africa, Barberton, Early Life Ecology, Greenstone Belt, Moodies, Ocean And Atmosphere, Oxygen