Drilling of the oldest ice shelf begins in Antarctica in order to study the ancient climate of the Earth

In order to study in more detail the history of the Earth's climate change, scientists began to implement a project, during which they hope obtain an ice core from the oldest ice plateau and thus study climate change on Earth over the past 1.5 million years.

Why and how scientists are studying the ancient climate in Antarctica

At the moment, the study of ice cores, especially those obtained in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, is a very effective way to find out what happened to the climate on Earth in the past.

After all, falling snow on the polar caps accumulates annually and, going through the compaction process, turns into ice, in which the "imprints" of the external conditions that formed the snow (and then ice). Moreover, such ice is easy to study and also date.

In order to study the ancient climate, the Beyond European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica was launched (EPICA), which receives funding from the European Commission as well as the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

A new seven-year cycle for the study of the ancient climate started back in 2019, and ice drilling started just recently, and will continue in January next year at a speed of 170 meters per week in the Little Dome C (Eastern Antarctica).

In the previous mission, which was completed in 2008, scientists managed to drill a well and get ice about 800,000 in age. years, and in the current study, scientists plan to reach new depths and study the climate that was on Earth 1.5 million years ago back.

It should be noted that scientists have already been able to assess the older ice, dating back to 2.7 million years. True, it was obtained quite close to the surface after, in the course of natural processes, the ancient ice was pushed out practically to the surface.

Scientists want to get a continuous chain of cores to study the climate as accurately as possible.

Scientists want to restore the picture of climate change year after year and better understand how the concentration of certain gases in the atmosphere influenced the climate and, in the future, develop strategies to mitigate the possible consequences of change in the modern the world.

We will monitor the implementation of the project and see what scientists can figure out. If you liked the material, please rate it and do not forget to subscribe to the channel. Thank you for your attention!