Scientists have successfully extracted what is likely the world’s oldest ice, dating back 1.2 million years, from deep within Antarctica. The team drilled a 2.8km-long ice core and retrieved a 9,186-foot-long sample that will provide valuable insights into Earth’s climate history.
The core, which has been cut into 1-meter pieces, contains ancient air bubbles that can help scientists understand the evolution of the planet’s climate. By analyzing these bubbles, researchers can reconstruct how Earth’s climate responded to changes in climate forcing factors such as solar radiation, volcanic activity, and orbital variations.
This data will help scientists understand the intricate relationship between greenhouse gases and global temperature over hundreds of thousands of years. The ice core may hold the answer to pressing mysteries surrounding the evolution of the planet’s climate, including why the chronology of Earth’s ice ages abruptly changed around a million years ago.
The discovery was made as part of the Beyond EPICA project, funded by the European Commission, and is a continuation of research that began in 1996. The team worked tirelessly for four summers to drill and process the ice, with specialists from 12 European scientific institutes involved in the effort.
Source: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/1-2-million-years-old-ice-found-in-antarctica-why-its-a-time-machine-7455157