While searching for the world’s oldest ice, scientists find sediment sneaking under the Antarctic ice sheet
For decades, researchers seeking to understand global climate change have analyzed ice cores drilled deep within the Antarctic ice sheet. This ice traps chemicals and bubbles of ancient air that tell the story of how Earth’s climate has changed over time.
To develop a precise climate record, researchers seek to find continuous ice that’s uninterrupted, frozen in chronological order with newest ice at the top and the oldest ice at the bottom.
Until recently, the oldest continuous ice core samples went back as far as 800,000 years, just when Earth’s ...