From Antarctica To Brussels, Hunting Climate Clues In Old Ice
In a small, refrigerated room at a Brussels university, parka-wearing scientists chop up Antarctic ice cores tens of thousands of years old in search of clues to our planet's changing climate.
Trapped inside the cylindrical icicles are tiny air bubbles that can provide a snapshot of what the earth's atmosphere looked like back then.
"We want to know a lot about the climates of the past because we can use it as an analogy for what can happen in the future," said Harry Zekollari, a glaciologist at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).
Zekollari was part of a team of four that headed to the white continent in November on a mission to find some of the world's oldest ice -- without breaking the bank.
Ice dating back millions of years can be found deep inside Antarctica, close to the South Pole, buried under kilometres of fresher ice and snow.
But that's hard to reach and expeditions to drill it out are expensive.
A recent EU-funded mission that brought back some 1.2-million-year-old samples came with a total price tag of around 11 million euros (around $12.8 million).
To cut costs, the team from VUB and the nearby Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) used satellite data and other clues to find areas where ancient ice might be more accessible.
Blue ice
Just like the water it is made of, ice flows towards the coast -- albeit slowly, explained Maaike Izeboud, a remote sensing specialist at VUB.
And when the flow hits an obstacle, say a ridge or mountain, bottom layers can be pushed up closer to the surface.
In a few rare spots, weather conditions like heavy winds prevent the formation of snow cover -- leaving thick layers of ice exposed.
Named after their colouration, which contrasts with the whiteness of the rest of the continent, these account for only about one percent of Antarctica territory.
"Blue ice areas are very special," said Izeboud.
Her team zeroed in on a blue ice stretch lying about 2,300 meters (7,500 feet) above sea level, around 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Belgium's Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station.
Some old meteorites had been previously found there -- a hint that the surrounding ice is also old, the researchers explained.
A container camp was set up and after a few weeks of measurements, drilling, and frozen meals, in January the team came back with 15 ice cores totalling about 60 meters in length.
These were then shipped from South Africa to Belgium, where they arrived in late June.
Inside a stocky cement ULB building in the Belgian capital, they are now being cut into smaller pieces to then be shipped to specialised labs in France and China for dating.
Zekollari said the team hopes some of the samples, which were taken at shallow depths of about 10 meters, will be confirmed to be about 100,000 years old.
Climate 'treasure hunt'
This would allow them to go back and dig a few hundred meters deeper in the same spot for the big prize.
"It's like a treasure hunt," Zekollari, 36, said, comparing their work to drawing a map for "Indiana Jones".
"We're trying to cross the good spot on the map... and in one and a half years, we'll go back and we'll drill there," he said.
"We're dreaming a bit, but we hope to get maybe three, four, five-million-year-old ice."
Such ice could provide crucial input to climatologists studying the effects of global warming.
Climate projections and models are calibrated using existing data on past temperatures and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere -- but the puzzle has some missing pieces.
By the end of the century temperatures could reach levels similar to those the planet last experienced between 2.6 and 3.3 million years ago, said Etienne Legrain, 29, a paleo-climatologist at ULB.
But currently there is little data on what CO2 levels were back then -- a key metric to understand how much further warming we could expect.
"We don't know the link between CO2 concentration and temperature in a climate warmer than that of today," Legrain said.
His team hopes to find it trapped inside some very old ice. "The air bubbles are the atmosphere of the past," he said. "It's really like magic when you feel it."
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Time of India
2 days ago
- Time of India
From Antarctica to Brussels, hunting climate clues in old ice
BRUSSELS: In a small, refrigerated room at a Brussels university, parka-wearing scientists chop up Antarctic ice cores tens of thousands of years old in search of clues to our planet's changing climate. Trapped inside the cylindrical icicles are tiny air bubbles that can provide a snapshot of what the earth's atmosphere looked like back then. "We want to know a lot about the climates of the past because we can use it as an analogy for what can happen in the future," said Harry Zekollari, a glaciologist at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Zekollari was part of a team of four that headed to the white continent in November on a mission to find some of the world's oldest ice -- without breaking the bank. Ice dating back millions of years can be found deep inside Antarctica, close to the South Pole, buried under kilometres of fresher ice and snow. But that's hard to reach and expeditions to drill it out are expensive. A recent EU-funded mission that brought back some 1.2-million-year-old samples came with a total price tag of around 11 million euros (around $12.8 million). To cut costs, the team from VUB and the nearby Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) used satellite data and other clues to find areas where ancient ice might be more accessible. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 11 Foods That Help In Healing Knee Pain Naturally Undo - Blue ice - Just like the water it is made of, ice flows towards the coast -- albeit slowly, explained Maaike Izeboud, a remote sensing specialist at VUB. And when the flow hits an obstacle, say a ridge or mountain, bottom layers can be pushed up closer to the surface. In a few rare spots, weather conditions like heavy winds prevent the formation of snow cover -- leaving thick layers of ice exposed. Named after their colouration, which contrasts with the whiteness of the rest of the continent, these account for only about one percent of Antarctica territory. "Blue ice areas are very special," said Izeboud. Her team zeroed in on a blue ice stretch lying about 2,300 meters (7,500 feet) above sea level, around 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Belgium's Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station. Some old meteorites had been previously found there -- a hint that the surrounding ice is also old, the researchers explained. A container camp was set up and after a few weeks of measurements, drilling, and frozen meals, in January the team came back with 15 ice cores totalling about 60 meters in length. These were then shipped from South Africa to Belgium, where they arrived in late June. Inside a stocky cement ULB building in the Belgian capital, they are now being cut into smaller pieces to then be shipped to specialised labs in France and China for dating. Zekollari said the team hopes some of the samples, which were taken at shallow depths of about 10 meters, will be confirmed to be about 100,000 years old. - Climate 'treasure hunt' - This would allow them to go back and dig a few hundred meters deeper in the same spot for the big prize. "It's like a treasure hunt," Zekollari, 36, said, comparing their work to drawing a map for "Indiana Jones". "We're trying to cross the good spot on the map... and in one and a half years, we'll go back and we'll drill there," he said. "We're dreaming a bit, but we hope to get maybe three, four, five-million-year-old ice." Such ice could provide crucial input to climatologists studying the effects of global warming . Climate projections and models are calibrated using existing data on past temperatures and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere -- but the puzzle has some missing pieces. By the end of the century temperatures could reach levels similar to those the planet last experienced between 2.6 and 3.3 million years ago, said Etienne Legrain, 29, a paleo-climatologist at ULB. But currently there is little data on what CO2 levels were back then -- a key metric to understand how much further warming we could expect. "We don't know the link between CO2 concentration and temperature in a climate warmer than that of today," Legrain said. His team hopes to find it trapped inside some very old ice. "The air bubbles are the atmosphere of the past," he said. "It's really like magic when you feel it." ub/ec/dc/tc
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Why 1.5-million-yr old ice is set to be melted in the UK
Ice, which is thought to be around 1.5 million years old, was retrieved from deep inside the Antarctic ice sheet. It has been brought to the United Kingdom where researchers hope that the it will shed some light on Earth's previous climate cycles read more The Beyond EPICA cores were collected from Dome C in East Antarctica over several years. Image courtesy: PNRA:IPEV Ice that is 1.5 million years old is set to be melted down in the UK. The ice, which is said to be the planet's oldest, was retrieved from deep inside the Antarctic ice sheet. It has been brought to the United Kingdom for scientists to observe and examine. But what do we know about it? Why it is being melted down in the UK? What we know The ice was retrieved from a depth of 2,800 metres underwater in East Antarctica. The region, known as Little Dome C, is located on the upper reaches of the Antarctic plateau. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The mission is part of the Beyond EPICA (European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica) Oldest Ice project. The team comprises researchers from 10 European nations and a dozen institutions. Those behind the mission, which was launched in 2019 and funded by the European Commission, want to decode Earth's climate history when it comes to ice core records. Thus far, when it comes to examining ice cores, we have records for around 800,000 years. They aim to extend this as far back as 1.5 million years. Millions of dollars were spent on extracting the ice cores from the Antarctic ice sheet. The cores were then divided into 1 metre blocks and shipped to the UK. They were then taken to Cambridge in a cold van. Some of it is currently being stored at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge. 'To hold that in my carefully gloved hands and be very careful not to drop the sections - it was an amazing feeling,' engineer James Veale told BBC. Scientists will use an instrument called the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICPMS) to examine the ice for nearly two dozen elements and trace metals. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Dr Liz Thomas holding the oldest ice core. Image courtesy: Image courtesy: PNRA:IPEV Two institutions in Germany and Switzerland also have received chunks of the ice core. The ice will be melted slowly over the next few weeks and examined in a state-of-the-art lab next door. The ice cores may contain carbon dioxide, methane or dust particles that can be examined as well as rare earth elements, sea salts and marine algae called diatoms. They will also reveal details about wind patterns, temperatures, and sea levels more than a million years ago. Why is it being melted down? Scientists hope the examination of the ice will reveal the secrets of Earth's previous climate cycles. The results may perhaps explain why sea levels rose and the ice sheets shrank between 800,000 and 1.5 million years ago. 'The project is driven by a central scientific question: why did the planet's climate cycle shift roughly one million years ago from a 41,000-year to a 100,000-year phasing of glacial-interglacial cycles?' Dr Liz Thomas, head of the ice cores team at the British Antarctic Survey told Sky News. Essentially, the Earth had been transitioning from warmer eras to cold ages roughly every 41,000 years. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD However, during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition era, around 800,000 to 1.2 million years ago, this transition suddenly shifted to every 100,000 years. We still don't understand why. 'This is a completely unknown period of our Earth's history', Thomas told BBC. Many researchers consider this to be one of the most puzzling and exciting secrets that science has yet to uncover. They also think examining Earth's past will help give human beings a further understanding of the future potential impact of climate change. 'Our climate system has been through so many different changes that we really need to be able to go back in time to understand these different processes and different tipping points,' Thomas told BBC. 'By extending the ice core record beyond this turning point, researchers hope to improve predictions of how Earth's climate may respond to future greenhouse gas increases', Thomas added. The rise of sea-levels is a major concern around the world in the 21st Century. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD With inputs from agencies
NDTV
2 days ago
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From Antarctica To Brussels, Hunting Climate Clues In Old Ice
Belgium: In a small, refrigerated room at a Brussels university, parka-wearing scientists chop up Antarctic ice cores tens of thousands of years old in search of clues to our planet's changing climate. Trapped inside the cylindrical icicles are tiny air bubbles that can provide a snapshot of what the earth's atmosphere looked like back then. "We want to know a lot about the climates of the past because we can use it as an analogy for what can happen in the future," said Harry Zekollari, a glaciologist at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Zekollari was part of a team of four that headed to the white continent in November on a mission to find some of the world's oldest ice -- without breaking the bank. Ice dating back millions of years can be found deep inside Antarctica, close to the South Pole, buried under kilometres of fresher ice and snow. But that's hard to reach and expeditions to drill it out are expensive. A recent EU-funded mission that brought back some 1.2-million-year-old samples came with a total price tag of around 11 million euros (around $12.8 million). To cut costs, the team from VUB and the nearby Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) used satellite data and other clues to find areas where ancient ice might be more accessible. Blue ice Just like the water it is made of, ice flows towards the coast -- albeit slowly, explained Maaike Izeboud, a remote sensing specialist at VUB. And when the flow hits an obstacle, say a ridge or mountain, bottom layers can be pushed up closer to the surface. In a few rare spots, weather conditions like heavy winds prevent the formation of snow cover -- leaving thick layers of ice exposed. Named after their colouration, which contrasts with the whiteness of the rest of the continent, these account for only about one percent of Antarctica territory. "Blue ice areas are very special," said Izeboud. Her team zeroed in on a blue ice stretch lying about 2,300 meters (7,500 feet) above sea level, around 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Belgium's Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station. Some old meteorites had been previously found there -- a hint that the surrounding ice is also old, the researchers explained. A container camp was set up and after a few weeks of measurements, drilling, and frozen meals, in January the team came back with 15 ice cores totalling about 60 meters in length. These were then shipped from South Africa to Belgium, where they arrived in late June. Inside a stocky cement ULB building in the Belgian capital, they are now being cut into smaller pieces to then be shipped to specialised labs in France and China for dating. Zekollari said the team hopes some of the samples, which were taken at shallow depths of about 10 meters, will be confirmed to be about 100,000 years old. Climate 'treasure hunt' This would allow them to go back and dig a few hundred meters deeper in the same spot for the big prize. "It's like a treasure hunt," Zekollari, 36, said, comparing their work to drawing a map for "Indiana Jones". "We're trying to cross the good spot on the map... and in one and a half years, we'll go back and we'll drill there," he said. "We're dreaming a bit, but we hope to get maybe three, four, five-million-year-old ice." Such ice could provide crucial input to climatologists studying the effects of global warming. Climate projections and models are calibrated using existing data on past temperatures and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere -- but the puzzle has some missing pieces. By the end of the century temperatures could reach levels similar to those the planet last experienced between 2.6 and 3.3 million years ago, said Etienne Legrain, 29, a paleo-climatologist at ULB. But currently there is little data on what CO2 levels were back then -- a key metric to understand how much further warming we could expect. "We don't know the link between CO2 concentration and temperature in a climate warmer than that of today," Legrain said. His team hopes to find it trapped inside some very old ice. "The air bubbles are the atmosphere of the past," he said. "It's really like magic when you feel it."
