An international team of scientists has successfully drilled nearly two miles into Antarctic bedrock, extracting one of the oldest ice cores to date, estimated to be at least 1.2 million years old.
The breakthrough promises to offer unprecedented insights into Earth’s atmospheric and climate history, potentially reshaping understanding of Ice Age cycles and atmospheric carbon’s role in climate change.
“Thanks to the ice core, we will understand what has changed in terms of greenhouse gases, chemicals, and dusts in the atmosphere,” said Carlo Barbante, an Italian glaciologist and coordinator of Beyond EPICA, the research project behind the drilling effort.
The core drilling took place at Little Dome C, near the Concordia Research Station, where temperatures average around minus-35°C. Over four years, a 16-member team meticulously worked each Antarctic summer to complete the drill, finally reaching bedrock in early January.
Preliminary isotope analyses confirm the ice’s age as exceeding 1.2 million years. Barbante highlighted that previous findings from an 800,000-year-old core revealed greenhouse gas levels, including carbon dioxide and methane, never exceeded pre-Industrial Revolution concentrations—even during warm periods.
However, today’s carbon dioxide levels are roughly 50% higher than any levels recorded in that ancient span.
The Beyond EPICA project, led by Italy and funded by the European Union, aims to deepen knowledge of Earth’s environmental past. Richard Alley, a Penn State climate scientist unaffiliated with the research, celebrated the accomplishment as “truly, truly, amazingly fantastic,” emphasising its significance for advancing climate science and understanding Earth’s deeper history beyond ice records.
“The knowledge gained from this discovery will provide scientists with invaluable tools to assess both natural climate variability and the effects of human activities,” Alley added.
