1.2 Million Years Old Ice Found In Antarctica. Why It’s A “Time Machine”

Scientists have successfully extracted what is likely the world’s oldest ice, dating back 1.2 million years, from deep within Antarctica. Working in extreme conditions of -35 degree C, the team drilled a 2.8km-long ice core, containing ancient air bubbles that could provide valuable insights into Earth’s climate history. After four summers of intense work, the international team, racing against seven other nations, reached the bedrock beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet to retrieve the 9,186-foot-long sample.

The core is a “time machine” that records “an extraordinary archive of Earth’s climate,” said Carlo Barbante, coordinator of the Beyond EPICA, or European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica – the team that collected the core.

As of now, the core has been cut into 1 metre (3.2-foot) pieces so that it can be studied. Claimed to be some of the oldest drilled ice on Earth, the core may hold the answer to the pressing mysteries surrounding the evolution of the planet’s climate.

“The air bubbles trapped within the ice core provide a direct snapshot of past atmospheric composition, including greenhouse gas concentrations like carbon dioxide and methane,” Mr Barbante said via email to CNN.

“By analysing these, we can reconstruct how Earth’s climate responded to changes in climate forcing factors, such as solar radiation, volcanic activity, and orbital variations. This data helps us understand the intricate relationship between greenhouse gases and global temperature over hundreds of thousands of years and now down to 1.2 million year(s) and hopefully beyond,” he added.

Scientists are also hopeful that the ice will help them understand why the chronology of Earth’s ice ages abruptly changed around a million years ago. A recent study suggests that this event almost led to the extinction of ancient human progenitors.

The core was discovered by researchers as part of the fourth campaign of the Beyond EPICA – oldest Ice project, funded by the European Commission. The campaign was conducted between mid-November to mid-January. Over the past four summers, specialists from 12 European scientific institutes have drilled and processed the ice for more than 200 days.

This effort is a continuation of a 1996 programme in which scientists discovered connections between the last 8,00,000 years of atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions and climate.