Researchers hunting for Noah’s Ark have drilled more than 60 feet under a Turkish formation and collected hundreds of samples now headed for lab tests this winter.
The Noah’s Ark Research Project has just finished its first full field season at the Durupınar site near Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey. For the first time at the location, the team used deep-core drilling and pulled soil from depths reaching 20 meters in some spots.
Project vice president Andrew Jones told Fox News Digital the crew gathered more than 300 soil samples from varying depths inside and outside the boat-shaped formation. The samples are going to laboratories this winter to look for signs of man-made activity or material consistent with decayed wood. Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen University has supported the work.
The formation was first identified in 1959 and has long drawn speculation about a possible link to the biblical ark. A 1996 paper by geologists Lorence Gene Collins and David Franklin Fasold rejected those claims and called the feature “a natural rock structure.” Jones says the newest fieldwork should slow that quick dismissal.
Jones said earlier sampling in 2024 already showed differences between soil taken inside the formation and soil taken outside it. He reported three times more organic matter inside, 38% more potassium inside, and differences in pH near the surface.
“Near [the] surface, we’re seeing a difference in the soil,” Jones said. “Let’s go deeper this year and see what we can find.”
That is exactly what the team did. When they drilled into the formation this year, they did not hit a solid block of rock, limestone, or any continuous rock mass. They hit mainly soil, with boulders in some places.
“When we drilled into the formation this year for the first time, we did not encounter any solid block of rock, of limestone, or of any type of a rock.”
Jones put the winter tests in plain terms.
“That’s what we’ll be testing this winter. Just to see if we can find any type of man-made activity or something that suggests decayed wood.”
He added that the team is still studying results and still has lab work ahead. Even so, he argued the drilling already undercuts the simple “it’s just rock” line.
“We’re still studying our results, but we believe that this should give skeptics pause when they say this is a rock formation.”
Jones also pointed to finds near the site, not inside it. Pottery recovered beside the formation has been tentatively dated by style from the early Chalcolithic period, also called the Copper Age, through the Iron Age. He said two ancient settlements lie near the formation, and that a nearby settlement has not been excavated.
“If this is Noah’s Ark, we have people living right beside it early on,” Jones said. “You can connect the dots.”
He identified himself as a Christian who believes the biblical account. He also warned against leaping to final conclusions before the lab work is done. He said friends who are atheists or agnostic sometimes treat the search as if he is “looking for Santa’s house or something.” His reply has been steady: keep testing, keep watching the data, and do not pretend the question is closed.
“We still have the lab work to do. And I hope everyone can follow along and see what we find.”
Breitbart reported the same year-long sampling push at Durupınar, the first-time deep-core work past 60 feet, and the plan to test for man-made traces or decayed wood. Creation ministry leader Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis urged restraint on any discovery claim. “Let’s see the actual data. After all, good science welcomes careful investigation,” Ham said. No conclusive proof of an ark has been produced, and past hoaxes and thin claims have left a long trail of skepticism.
That caution matches Jones’s own line. The project has finished a full field season, not a final verdict. Hundreds of samples are in process. Drill logs show soil where critics expected solid rock. Earlier chemistry differences inside the outline remain claims that still need full laboratory confirmation. The 1996 “natural rock structure” conclusion is still on the books. The new cores and the winter tests are the next hard check, not a victory lap.
For readers who take Scripture seriously, the stakes are obvious. A real historical flood and a real vessel matter. For readers who do not, the process still matters: measure the soil, run the labs, and stop pretending an old geology paper froze the case forever. Open ground, open cores, and open lab books beat sneers about Santa’s house every time.
Faithful inquiry and careful science are not enemies. The samples are in. Now the instruments get their say.
