Chiseling a 2 million-year-old ice block, scientists have made an important discovery

Researchers at the South Pole, while chipping away at the core of an ice sheet dating back about 2 million years ago, have made surprising discoveries about Earth’s climate.

Researchers have made an important discovery about Earth after chiseling a 2 million-year-old block of ice (Image: Getty)

This discovery in Antarctica is said to be the “first direct look” at the climatic conditions of the ancient Earth.

The team, led by professors at Princeton University in the US, analyzed two ice samples taken from the 2 million-year-old Antarctic ice sheet. These ice samples store many molecules of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) dating back to prehistoric times.

According to Dr. Yuzhen Yan, who led the study, this finding paints an overall picture of changes in Earth’s climate over the past millions of years.

“Even if you can’t feel the constant change of things, you can still be aware of their changes over time,” he said.

According to Dr. Yan, ice samples from Antarctica represent a continuous record of Earth’s climatic conditions from 800,000 years ago. And if it weren’t for the effects of the melting ice, the dating from them could be even longer.

The 2 million-year-old ice core drilling was carried out by professor John Higgins from Princeton University, who also previously drilled the world’s oldest known ice core.

The researchers determined the age of the ice by analyzing isotopes of argon gas trapped in it.

The new discovery was first published in the journal Nature this month. It will help researchers better understand the cycle and timing of ice ages on Earth.