Digging into Antarctica’s ice is not as random as it sounds. It can show researchers the history of the Earth, and that is exactly what an international team of scientists representing 10 countries from the European Union did. So, what did they do and what did they find? (Picture: PNRA/IPEV Beyond Epica via AP)
Trying to get a hold of 1.2 million year old ice is no easy feat. Representing the oldest known ice on the planet, the 1.7 mile-long ice core was recovered from over 9,000 feet (2,800 meters) deep underground, where the Antarctic ice sheet meets bedrock. The drilling was completed earlier this month at a location called Little Dome C near the Concordia Research Station in southeastern Antarctica, where the team braved temperatures of -35C (-31F) to recover this piece of Earth’s natural history (Picture: PNRA/IPEV Beyond Epica via AP)
Dr Julien Westhoff, a chief scientist in the field and postdoctoral student at Copenhagen University said: ‘From preliminary analyses recorded at Little Dome C, we have a strong indication that the uppermost 2,480 meters [8,136 feet] contain a climate record that goes back to 1.2 million years in a high-resolution record where up to 13,000 years are compressed into one meter of ice’ (Picture: PNRA/IPEV Beyond Epica via AP)
The ice core is extremely well preserved and reveals a record of our planet’s climate history, continuous information on atmospheric temperatures, and some clear samples of old air with greenhouse gases. Dr Carlo Barbante, professor at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice said: ‘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’ (Picture: PNRA/IPEV Beyond Epica via AP)
So, how did they do this? The team used radio echo sounding technologies and advances in ice flow modeling to know exactly where to drill. The lowest 688 feet of the ice core above the bedrock is made of older ice that is heavily deformed. The team thinks that the older ice could be mixed or refrozen ice, and are of unknown origin (Picture: PNRA/IPEV)
But by looking deeper into the ice, researchers can begin to understand the Earth’s major climate mysteries – such as what happened when glacial cycles were disrupted roughly 900,000 to 1.2 million years ago. And some scientists believe humans have come close to extinction during these massive climate shifts (Picture: PNRA/IPEV)
Ice cores and other geological samples help reveal how our planet’s climate is changing. They can trap bubbles of air and particles to show different temperature variation, and what greenhouse gases were present. They can even store viruses. This new ice core will be brought back to Europe aboard an icebreaker that must keep it at -50C or -58 degrees Fahrenheit where it will be analysed. The researchers will try and see if they can even find records beyond 1.2 million years, so they can try and find the last time Antarctica was ice-free (Picture: PNRA/IPEV)
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