Some of the world’s oldest ice ever recovered from Antarctica has arrived in the United Kingdom for climate analysis.<\/p>\n
The ice core \u2014 drilled from a depth of 2,800 metres in the East Antarctic Peninsula \u2014 is expected to hold a climate record stretching back over 1.5 million years.<\/p>\n
The recovery nearly doubles the current 800,000-year ice core record.<\/p>\n
“So this is a really exciting project to work on because we really are exploring a completely unknown time in our history, and what we’re hoping is we’re going to unlock all these amazing secrets,” Liz Thomas, head of the Ice Cores team at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in Cambridge, said.<\/p>\n
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Liz Thomas shows off one of the ice cores. (Supplied: PNRA\/IPEV)<\/p>\n
‘Unlock Earth’s climate evolution’<\/p>\n
The ice core will undergo analysis over the coming years at BAS and other European laboratories.<\/p>\n
Scientists aim to unlock insights into Earth’s climate evolution, focusing on greenhouse gas concentrations, atmospheric temperatures, wind patterns, and sea ice extent.<\/p>\n
A key objective is to understand why Earth’s glacial-interglacial cycles shifted from 41,000 to 100,000 years about 1 million years ago.<\/p>\n
This gives scientists context for predicting future climate responses to rising greenhouse gas levels.<\/p>\n