The extracted ice core offers an unparalleled record of Earth's climate history, including atmospheric temperatures and ancient air samples with greenhouse gases spanning over 1.2 million years and possibly more.
"We have marked a historic moment for climate and environmental science," stated Carlo Barbante, professor at Ca' Foscari University of Venice and senior associate member of the Institute of Polar Sciences of the National Research Council of Italy (Cnr-Isp).
Barbante, who also coordinates the Beyond EPICA project, added, "This is the longest continuous record of our past climate from an ice core, providing insights into the relationship between the carbon cycle and our planet's temperature. This success is a testament to the exceptional collaboration among European research institutions and the dedication of scientists and logistical teams over the past decade." The project also benefits from the EU-funded ITN DEEPICE project, which contributed three PhD candidates to the campaign.
According to Julien Westhoff, chief scientist in the field and postdoctoral researcher at Copenhagen University, preliminary analyses suggest that the uppermost 2,480 meters of the ice core contain a high-resolution climate record extending back 1.2 million years.
"In this section, up to 13,000 years of climate history are compressed into one meter of ice," Westhoff reported. Frank Wilhelms, the principal investigator in the field and a joint professor at Gottingen University and the Alfred Wegener Institute, emphasized, "The record from 0.8 to 1.2 million years ago was discovered exactly where advanced radio echo sounding technologies and ice flow modeling predicted, between 2,426 and 2,490 meters deep, extending the twenty-year-old EPICA ice core record."
Below this climate-rich section, the bottom 210 meters of ice above the bedrock show signs of significant deformation, possibly consisting of mixed or refrozen layers of unknown origin. Advanced analyses may provide new insights into the behavior of refrozen ice under Antarctica's ice sheet and the glaciation history of East Antarctica.
The European research teams have accomplished a remarkable feat: over four field seasons, they completed more than 200 days of drilling and ice core processing in the extreme conditions of the central Antarctic plateau. At an altitude of 3,200 meters and with average summer temperatures of -35 C, the team's efforts highlight the resilience and expertise required for such work.
The Beyond EPICA ice core will offer unprecedented insights into the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, a period between 900,000 and 1.2 million years ago marked by a shift in glacial cycles from 41,000-year to 100,000-year intervals. Unraveling the reasons behind this transition remains a key focus of climate research.
"Transporting the precious ice cores back to Europe poses a logistical challenge," explained Gianluca Bianchi Fasani, senior researcher at ENEA-UTA and head of ENEA logistics for Beyond EPICA. "To ensure the ice remains at -50 C, we developed specialized cold containers and coordinated air and naval assets from the National Antarctic Research Program (PNRA)." The cores will travel aboard the icebreaker Laura Bassi, maintaining the cold chain for subsequent analysis in Europe.
Upon arrival, scientists will analyze the ice samples to reconstruct Earth's climate and atmospheric history over the past 1.2 million years and potentially beyond. Researchers will also date the underlying bedrock to determine when this region of Antarctica was last ice-free.
The successful deployment and operation of the Little Dome C camp were supported by the French Polar Institute and ENEA. Their expertise enabled the use of various transportation methods, including aircraft for personnel transport and traverses for heavy cargo, alongside the French and Italian ships L'Astrolabe and Laura Bassi.
Related Links
Universita Ca' Foscari
Beyond the Ice Age
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