(The Guardian) Australian Antarctic expedition drills for answers on global heating
An Australian Antarctic expedition is now returning to the country’s Casey station base after the first summer of work to drill ice cores that could yield a continuous 1.5m-year history of the Earth’s climate.
The 10-strong team made a historic 1,200km journey across an untraversed frozen landscape to reach their drilling site on 10 January. After nine days of setting up camp at Little Dome C and carrying out test drills, the team – part of the Million Year Ice project – turned back for Casey at the weekend before temperatures, which had been at -30C, turn even colder.
The ice cores that will be drilled in three-metre sections for the next four or five summers contain ancient trapped air and other elements that can show how much CO2 was in the atmosphere and how warm (or cold) the planet has been.
The previous oldest continuous record – from an ice core drilled about 35km away from the Australian site – covers about 800,000 years.
An Australian Antarctic expedition is now returning to the country’s Casey station base after the first summer of work to drill ice cores that could yield a continuous 1.5m-year history of the Earth’s climate.
The 10-strong team made a historic 1,200km journey across an untraversed frozen landscape to reach their drilling site on 10 January. After nine days of setting up camp at Little Dome C and carrying out test drills, the team – part of the Million Year Ice project – turned back for Casey at the weekend before temperatures, which had been at -30C, turn even colder.
The ice cores that will be drilled in three-metre sections for the next four or five summers contain ancient trapped air and other elements that can show how much CO2 was in the atmosphere and how warm (or cold) the planet has been.
The previous oldest continuous record – from an ice core drilled about 35km away from the Australian site – covers about 800,000 years.
