An international team of researchers has managed to extract 1.2 million year old ice cores in Antarctica. This extraordinary result, obtained thanks to the European project Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice, coordinated by the Institute of Polar Sciences of the National Research Council (Cnr-Isp)offers a unique window into our planet’s past.
Ice cores, extracted from a depth of 2,800 metres, contain valuable information on atmospheric temperatures and greenhouse gas concentrations from over a million years ago. This natural archive will allow us to better understand past climate changes and predict future ones.
This discovery is crucial to reveal one of the most fascinating mysteries of climate science: the Middle-Pleistocene transitionwhich occurred between 900,000 and 1.2 million years ago, when glacial cycles lengthened significantly. Understanding the causes of this change will help us predict how the climate may evolve in the future. Achieving this result was possible thanks to a drilling campaign lasting several years and the commitment of an international team of scientists and technicians. Antarctica, with its extreme conditions, presented an unprecedented logistical challenge.
Detailed analyzes of ice cores will allow us to precisely reconstruct the evolution of the Earth’s climate over the last 1.5 million years. Scientists will thus be able to identify the factors that influenced past climate and evaluate the impact of human activities on global warming.
“We are currently in the sixth and penultimate year of European funding. This extraordinary result allowed the project to respect the work plan agreed with the European Commission“, says Chiara Venier, research technologist at the Cnr-Isp and project manager of Beyond EPICA.
“Preliminary isotopic analyzes conducted in the field on the Beyond EPICA ice core allowed us to monitor the drilling progress day by day and to synchronize this exciting new record with the EPICA ice core previously extracted at Dome C and with the records of the marine sediments, thus establishing a preliminary time scale“, he says Barbara Stenni, full professor at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
The activities of Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice benefit from the synergy with the research conducted within the National Antarctic Research Program (PNRA), financed by the Ministry of University and Research (Mur) and managed by the Cnr for scientific coordination, by ENEA for the logistical planning and organization of activities in the Antarctic bases, and by the OGS for the technical and scientific management of the icebreaker Laura Bassi.
“The precious ice cores extracted during this campaign will be transported to Europe on board the icebreaker Laura Bassi, maintaining the cold chain at -50°C, a significant challenge for the logistics of the project,” says Gianluca Bianchi Fasani, senior researcher at ENEA-UTA and responsible for ENEA logistics for Beyond EPICA. “To achieve this goal, a strategy was developed that involved the design of specialized refrigerated containers and precise planning of the air and naval resources of the National Antarctic Research Program (PNRA).”
Once these ice cores arrive in Europe, the project will focus on analyzing samples to reveal Earth’s climatic and atmospheric history over the last 1.5 million years. In the deeper sections of the core, older ice from the pre-Quaternary period may also be present. Dating of the underlying rocks will be undertaken to determine when this region of Antarctica was last ice-free.
Credit©PNRA_IPEV
