Scientists Extract 1.2-Million-Year-Old Antarctic Ice Core, Breaking Records

The continuous ice core provides an unprecedented climate record and may unlock insights into Earth's ancient glacial cycles and greenhouse gas dynamics.

An international research team drilled 2.8 kilometers into Antarctica's Little Dome C to retrieve a 1.2-million-year-old ice core, the longest continuous climate record ever extracted.
The ice core contains ancient air bubbles, offering a snapshot of past atmospheric conditions, including greenhouse gas concentrations like carbon dioxide and methane.
This breakthrough aims to uncover the causes of the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, a period when Earth's glacial cycles shifted from 41,000 to 100,000 years approximately 900,000 to 1.2 million years ago.
Preliminary analysis reveals high-resolution climate data, with up to 13,000 years of history compressed into each meter of ice, providing critical insights into Earth's climate evolution.
The ice core will be transported to Europe in specialized cold containers for further study, with researchers hoping to better predict future climate changes based on past patterns.

CNN

Smithsonian Magazine

Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung