Antarctic ice, key to climate

2004/09/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Klima

The longest and oldest ice peak or cylinder of all time has been extracted in Antarctica. It is three kilometers long and the oldest ice is 740,000 years ago.

Ice keeps a record of the climatic and atmospheric composition of each epoch, so scientists believe that the study of this nucleus will provide relevant information.

Excavations have been long and expensive. The Antarctic conditions are very hard to work with. The experts who have participated in this European project, called EPICA, have already begun to study ice pieces in various European laboratories.

They have obtained the first data and, among other things, have confirmed that glaciations have occurred cyclically so far. Moreover, when the Earth last suffered its current orbit, it is said that the climate and atmosphere were very similar. Furthermore, until the beginning of the industrial era, the amount of CO ₂ in the air was practically the same.

From now on they expect to get more data of interest.