Overview
- The Nature Geoscience paper from the GreenDrill project used luminescence dating on summit-bed sediment to show the Prudhoe Dome site was last exposed to daylight roughly 6,000–8,200 years ago.
- Researchers report that early Holocene regional summers were about 3–5°C warmer than today, a level some projections suggest Prudhoe Dome could reach by 2100.
- Field teams in 2023 drilled through about 1,669 feet of ice at the dome’s summit and also recovered a near-edge core, marking a targeted effort to sample material from beneath vulnerable margins.
- Scientists say identifying which margins have melted in past warm periods will help tune ice-sheet and surface-melt models and improve local sea-level risk assessments for coastal communities.
- Separate research led by the University of Ottawa finds uneven geothermal heat beneath Greenland warms some basal zones and speeds ice sliding, a factor that could make current sea-level timelines too conservative if overlooked.