Overview

• On July 4, AWI researchers unveiled the project and shipped a 240-metre section of the 1.2-million-year-old core to Bremerhaven for initial processing.
• Subsamples are being stored and prepared at minus 30 °C in a dedicated facility before distribution to European laboratories for specialized analyses.
• Initial analyses will target ancient atmospheric greenhouse gas levels, dust concentration and isotopic ratios to reconstruct past climate dynamics.
• Scientists aim to use the continuous record to clarify shifts in Earth’s glacial cycles during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition when ice ages lengthened from 41,000 to 100,000 years.
• The effort involves coordination among the Alfred-Wegener-Institut and at least a dozen European institutes sharing expertise and laboratory capacity.