Scientists to Melt Antarctic Ice to Reveal Ancient History

Samples of Earth’s oldest ice will be slowly melted so that scientists can analyze prehistoric conditions, unlocking information about Earth’s climate. The ice core was drilled in January of this year and will now be slowly melted over a course of seven weeks.

The research team will identify isotopes in the molten ice, as well as analyze air bubbles, volcanic ash, and microbes, that could tell us the wind patterns, temperatures, and rainfall for a period between 800,000 and up to 1.5 million years ago or possibly more. The team will use this information to solve the mystery around the Mid-Pleistocene Transition. Between 800,000 to 1.2 million years ago, our planet’s glacial cycles changed from 82,000 years per cycle to 200,000 years per cycle.

According to Dr. Liz Thomas, head of ice core research at the British Antarctic Survey, “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.” (Here you can explain the processes and tipping points)

The core was drilled, extracted, and cut by an international team of scientists, led by the Italian Institute of Polar Sciences and included 10 European nations. The team worked at temperatures of -35°C, or -31°F. The core was then cut into one-meter pieces and