Imagine peering back 1.5 million years—scientists at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) are doing exactly that by extracting ancient ice cores from one of the coldest, most remote camps on the planet.
For more than 60 years, BAS teams have probed Antarctica's frozen depths, famously spotting ozone thinning in 1985 and helping end ozone-depleting chemicals worldwide. Their latest mission promises fresh insights into how Earth's climate has changed over a stretch of time that spans ice ages and warming spells alike.
Joined by experts from 10 European countries, the team zeroed in on Little Dome C in East Antarctica. There, they bored a hole 2,800 meters deep into the ice sheet, pulling up 4.5-meter sections that took around two and a half hours each to recover.
Those sections were carefully split into smaller pieces, logged with precise details, and sent to research labs across Europe. In total, about 190 meters of ice made its way to Cambridge, where scientists have cut it into meter-long blocks just 3.5 centimeters square—tiny time capsules stored at a frosty -25°C until analysis begins.
By measuring trapped gases, dust particles and isotopes locked in these ancient layers, researchers hope to reconstruct atmospheric conditions spanning 1.2 to 1.5 million years ago. The data could refine climate models, revealing natural patterns and tipping points that shaped our planet's history—and could foreshadow its future.
These frozen records are more than scientific trophies; they are keys to understanding how Earth's systems respond to extreme shifts. As labs prepare to unlock their secrets, the world waits for clues that could guide policy, innovation and collective action on climate change.
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British scientists seek the climate secrets of ancient Antarctic ice
cgtn.com
