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Researchers have discovered 1,2 million-year-old ice deep beneath Antarctica, offering a unique insight into Earth's ancient climate and providing crucial clues to understanding climate change throughout the planet's history.
Project Scientists Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice achieved an extraordinary feat by drilling 2.800 meters into the Antarctic ice, obtaining a core that records the Earth's climate up to 1,2 million years ago.
This unprecedented discovery was made in Little Dome C, a remote region on the frozen continent. With this, knowledge about the planet's climate history takes a significant leap forward.
The data obtained promises to deepen our understanding of climate change over millions of years.
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"We found the record spanning 0,8 to 1,2 million years ago, exactly as predicted. This extends the ice core obtained 20 years ago by the EPICA project.”, explained Frank Wilhelms, lead researcher and adjunct professor at the University of Göttingen and the Alfred Wegener Institute.
Why are ice cores valuable?
Each ice sheet in Antarctica is like a time capsule, preserving atmospheric particles, gases and isotopic compositions of when was formed.
These samples offer clues about past temperatures, carbon dioxide levels and climate events.
The team found up to 13.000 years compressed into just one meter of ice, creating an extremely detailed record.
"This ice core contains a high-resolution climate record stretching back 1,2 million years”, explained Julien Westhoff, lead scientist in the field and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Copenhagen.
The drilling challenge
The work required more than 200 days of continuous effort in extreme conditions on the Central Antarctic Plateau.
The area where the drilling took place is 3.200 meters above sea level, with average summer temperatures of -35°C.
The location and hostile weather conditions made the project complex, both technically and logistically.
Choosing the location was crucial. Cutting-edge equipment, such as radio echo sounders and advanced ice flow models, helped the team identify the ideal spot for drilling.
Challenging logistics
Sample transportation is a critical step in the project. The extracted ice must be kept at a temperature of -50 °C to preserve its characteristics. To do this, the samples will be taken to Europe aboard the icebreaker. Laura bassi.
Second Gianluca Bianchi Fasani, head of logistics at ENEA for the project, maintaining the cold chain is an extremely challenging operation.
