Scientists have excavated a block of ice more than 1.2 million years old from the depths of Antarctica, which is probably the oldest ice in the world that modern humans have come into contact with.
Working in temperatures of minus 35 degrees Celsius, a team of scientists extracted a cylinder of ice 2.8 kilometers long and stored it in frozen caves near the surface, the BBC reported.
Trapped within the ice are ancient air bubbles that scientists hope will help solve the mystery of our planet’s climate history.
European scientists have been working in Antarctica for four summers, in a race with seven other countries to be the first to reach the rock beneath the frozen continent.
Their work could help solve one of the greatest mysteries in the history of the planet’s climate – what happened 900,000 to 1.2 million years ago, when glacial cycles stopped.
Some researchers believe that our ancestors then found themselves on the verge of extinction.
“It’s an incredible achievement. You have a piece of ice that’s a million years old in your hands. Sometimes you see layers of ash that come from volcanic eruptions. You see inside tiny bubbles of air that our ancestors breathed a million years ago,” said Professor Carlo Barbante of the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, who coordinated the research.
The team was led by the Italian Institute of Polar Sciences and included ten European countries.
To carry out the research, the scientists had to transport drilling equipment, laboratories and a camp 40 kilometers by snowmobile from the nearest research base.
