Scientists to melt unique 1.5m year-old ice to unlock mystery about climate change

A unique ice core which is believed to be more than 1.5 million years old is being investigated to carve out information about climate change. This transparent core, extracted from deep within Antarctica’s ice sheet, is the oldest known ice on Earth.

According to the scientists, the information could “revolutionise” what we all know about climate change. Stored inside the -23C freezer room at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, the ice cores are crystal clear as one can see their hands through them. The team of experts will slowly melt the hard-won ice for almost seven weeks.

Dr Liz Thomas, head of ice core research at the British Antarctic Survey told BBC: “This is a completely unknown period of our Earth's history.”

Melting the ice will free old dust, volcanic ash, and microscopic marine algae that were trapped when it froze. According to the scientist, all these particles will help the experts to know about wind patterns, temperature, and sea levels more than a million years ago.

The ice core was extracted from Antartica after whihc the ice was chopped into 1m blocks and transported by ship and then in a cold van to Cambridge.

Engineer James Veale, who helped to extract the ice close to the Concordia base in eastern Antarctica told BBC: "To hold that in my carefully gloved hands and be very careful not to drop the sections - it was an amazing feeling."

Dr Thomas added: "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."

Institutions in Germany and Switzerland have also received slices of the 2.8-kilometre ice core.

According to Dr Thomas, researchers may uncover signs of a time over 800,000 years ago when carbon dioxide levels were naturally as high—or possibly higher—than they are today.

Experts believe that the research will help scientists learn more about a puzzling shift, called the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, when Earth’s ice age patterns suddenly changed between 800,000 and 1.2 million years ago.