A new chapter in Antarctic science opened

A globally important scientific expedition has been hailed a massive success after ancient ice cores were extracted from one of the most remote parts of East Antarctica.

First Ice cores being loaded onto a Basler aircraft at Little Dome C © Sharon Labudda AAD. Picture: Supplied/Sharon Labudda

A globally important scientific expedition has been hailed a massive success after ancient ice cores were extracted from one of the most remote parts of East Antarctica.

The project has given researchers hope that some of the world’s most enduring climate questions can finally be answered.

On December 23 last year, a team of 10 Australian expeditioners set out on a 2300km round trip from Casey research station to Little Dome C, the site of the Million Year Ice Core, which is a remote summit holding some of the oldest ice on the planet.

Weathering blizzards and temperatures plummeting to as low as -44 degrees Celsius, the team retrieved four shallow ice cores containing information about snow chemistry.

Drilling at camp for million year ice core project. Picture: Supplied/Sharon Labudda

Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) glaciologist Dr Lenneke Jong said the discovery had opened “a new chapter on Antarctic science and reinforces our ability to reach into remote depths of the Antarctic continent for science and knowledge”.

“These cores range from six to seven metres long and cover roughly two hundred years of snowfall,” she said.

“They’re our first look at snow chemistry and climate data at the site.

The AAD believes the cores will help make climate predictions for the future and solve mysteries around why the ice age cycle changed about a million years ago from a 41,000-year cycle to an ice age every 100,000 years.

Next summer, drilling will begin to retrieve an ice core more than a million years old, at a depth of 2.8km.

The plan is for the team to extract the first 120 metres of the core.