BRITISH SCIENTISTS BEGIN TESTING OF THE WORLD’S OLDEST ICE

British scientists have begun to melt and test the “world’s oldest ice” extracted earlier in 2025. The piece of ice is about 1.2 million years old, and scientists have just begun testing it. The scientists hope that the tests will reveal more about the environmental history of one million years ago. Scientists also hope that this will enable the prediction of future climate changes. Over the next seven weeks, scientists will slowly melt the ice. Scientists are not interested in the ice itself, but are interested in what is found inside the ice, such as ancient dust, volcanic ash, and marine algae. All these can help scientists understand the climate more than a million years ago.

Polar scientists are all very excited to see what the melted ice could reveal. Dr. Liz Thomas, head of ice core research at the British Antarctic Survey, explained, “This is a completely unknown period of our Earth’s history. Our climate system has been through so many different changes that we really need to be able to go back in time to understand these different processes and different tipping points.”

An international team of scientists extracted the ice. The Italian Institute of Polar Sciences led the team. The team included ten European nations. The team worked in -35 degrees Celsius (-31 degrees Fahrenheit). They drilled a 1.7-mile-long piece of ice from the bottom of the ocean. After being excavated, the ice was chopped into 1-meter pieces and was carefully shipped to separate countries for research.

The melting of the world’s oldest ice is a highly anticipated event for polar scientists, as they are eager to discover what the ice may reveal.

Link to Article:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/articles/ce8zl6lr040o