By Dean Murray
Antarctic scientists have extracted what is believed to be the world’s oldest ice.
The international team successfully drilled a 2.8-kilometer-long ice core, reaching the bedrock beneath the Antarctic ice sheet.
Researchers believe the samples will show a continuous record of climate history as far back as 1.2 million years ago and help solve the mysteries of glacial climate cycles.
The “Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice” project, funded by the European Commission, achieved a historic milestone for climate science on its fourth Antarctic campaign.
The European teams in the field achieved a total of more than 200 days of successful drilling and ice core processing operations across four field seasons in the harsh environment of the central Antarctic plateau. They worked at an altitude of 3,200 meters above sea level and with an average summer temperature of -35°C.
The ice core from Beyond EPICA will offer unprecedented insights into the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, a remarkable period between 900,000 and 1.2 million years ago when glacial cycles slowed down from 41,000-year to 100,000-year intervals. The reasons behind this shift remain one of climate science’s enduring mysteries, which this project aims to unravel.
“We have marked a historic moment for climate and environmental science” said Carlo Barbante, professor at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, a senior associate member of the Institute of Polar Sciences of the National Research Council of Italy (Cnr-Isp) and coordinator of Beyond EPICA. “This is the longest continuous record of our past climate from an ice core, and it can reveal the interlink between the carbon cycle and temperature of our planet.”
“This achievement was made possible through the extraordinary collaboration of various European research institutions and the dedicated work of scientists and logistical personnel in the field over the last ten years,” he added.
