Antarctica's Deep Core Unlocks 1.2 Million Years of Climate History
An international team at Little Dome C, East Antarctica, drilled 2.8 km to bedrock and retrieved an ice core with a continuous climate record dating back at least 1.2 million years, extending the EPICA archive. The trapped air bubbles provide direct samples of ancient atmosphere, crucial for understanding why Earth’s glacial cycles shifted during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition. Gas measurements, isotope data, and dating (including krypton-81) are being processed across labs, with some bottom ice possibly older but not perfectly in chronological order. The result is a direct atmosphere-to-temperature record that will help identify the drivers of the planet’s changing ice-age rhythm, beyond the influence of industrial emissions.
