Drilling in Antarctica to find the Earth's oldest ice and 1,5 million years of climate history

Friday, February 10th 2023 - 09:52 UTC



MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Montevideo, February 10th 2023 - 10:54 UTC

The 2022/23 drilling team at Little Dome C. Dr Rob Mulvaney, bottom left, is from BAS. Photo credit: Beyond Epica

Scientists in East Antarctica drilling to find the Earth’s oldest ice have reached a key milestone after two months of fieldwork in sub-zero temperatures. The team is part of Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice, an EU-funded research consortium from 10 European countries whose aim is to drill an ice core to capture 1.5 million years of climate history.

The 15-person team drilled over 800 metres during their second phase of drilling, which will help them to reconstruct past temperatures and greenhouse concentrations and answer important questions about big shifts in the past record of Earth’s climate.

The drill site Little Dome C is an area of 10 km2, located 35 km from the Italian-French Concordia Station — one of the most extreme places on Earth. By analyzing the ice cores extracted from the deep ice in Antarctica, the project will collect information about the evolution of temperature, the composition of the atmosphere, and the carbon cycle.

Dr Robert Mulvaney from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) was there for drilling which started in December 2022 and concluded in late January. The team used a new drilling system provided by the Alfred Wegener Institut (AWI) in Germany. Despite severe weather conditions and a few problems with the drilling systems, the team worked on drilling shifts for 16 hours a day to reach the important milestone.

More:
https://en.mercopress.com/2023/02/10/drilling-in-antarctica-to-find-the-earth-s-oldest-ice-and-1-5-million-years-of-climate-history