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Why 1.5-million-yr old ice is set to be melted in the UK
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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With inputs from agencies
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