Project dispatch Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice recently successfully completed the second cycle of ice drilling in the Little Dome C area of central Antarctica. At the same time, this area is considered one of the most extreme on Earth. The aim of the project is to obtain ice samples from the past and with their help to refine information on climate development in history.
An international project that he leads Charles Barbantedirector of the Italian Institute of Polar Sciences, in which a number of institutions from around the world participate, started already in 2019 and is to run for a total of seven years. The current drilling cycle took place from the end of November 2022 to the end of January 2023, during the Antarctic summer, and the researchers penetrated to a depth of 808.47 meters.
A quest for ancient ice
At this depth there is ice that preserves valuable information about the climate and atmosphere from 49,300 years ago, deep into the youngest ice age. But the scientists’ goals are much more ambitious – they want to drill through the entire ice sheet in this area, which is roughly 2,700 meters. Data from this depth should yield valuable information about climate from 900,000 to 1.2 million years ago.
Ice samples from an exploratory well. (photo: PNRA/IPEV, CC0)
According to the participants of the expedition, it was a very demanding undertaking, during which the researchers faced technical difficulties, repaired the drilling rig and struggled with adverse local weather. Their camp is located at an altitude of 3,233 meters, about 34 kilometers from the Franco-Italian research station Concordia. The average air temperature in these places is usually around −51 °C, while even during the Antarctic summer it drops to −80 °C. The researchers have so far picked up the first 217 meters of extracted ice core.
TIP: Drilling in the extreme: A team of experts drilled over 2 kilometers of Antarctic ice
„The drilling season was very intense and required a gigantic effort, but it paid off,“ reveals Charles Barbante. „We tested the rig and other equipment, and subsequently reached a respectable depth of 808 meters, from where we took quality ice samples. This depth will be the starting point for the next drilling season of the Beyond EPICA project.“
