A team of scientists in the UK have begun studying what may be the world’s oldest ice, believed to be around 1.2 million years old.
The ice was collected earlier this year from deep beneath the surface of East Antarctica and recently arrived in the UK for testing. Scientists hope it will help them understand how Earth’s climate has changed over time and what the future might hold.
For the next seven weeks, researchers will slowly melt the ancient ice at a special laboratory. They aren’t just interested in the ice itself, but in what’s trapped inside. Tiny bubbles of ancient air, dust, volcanic ash, and even microscopic marine life could provide clues about temperatures, wind patterns, and greenhouse gases from over a million years ago.
Dr. Liz Thomas, who leads ice core research at the British Antarctic Survey, said the information inside the ice could help explain major changes in Earth’s climate. “This is a completely unknown period of our Earth’s history,” she explained.
The ice was collected by a team of scientists from 10 European countries, led by the Italian Institute of Polar Sciences. They worked in freezing temperatures of -35°C, drilling down the same length as 26 football fields stacked end-to-end.
Once extracted, the ice was cut into blocks, carefully packed, and shipped by boat and truck to labs in the UK, Germany, and Switzerland. Now, the real discovery begins.
