A team of scientists has discovered an ancient ice core in Antarctica’s Ong Valley. They believe that it is the oldest frozen element on Earth offering information about what our planet was like 5 million years ago. The ice cores, found at the South Pole, are a bubble within its information dating a hundred million years ago.
The ice core found by scientists consists of two layers, an older layer of 5.1 million years and the younger layer of 2.95 million years. The ice core was formed in the Pliocene era with a length of 9.4 meters. Scientists discovering a million-year-old ice core is special as most ice cores last only 800,000 years.
This unearthed frozen evidence, as researchers believe, might solve the mysteries of the ancient Earth. These findings contain remnants of the ancient atmosphere of our planet.
Ice cores are considered important evidence holding samples of past atmospheric events of our planet and are also capable of predicting future environmental changes. The ice core recently found indicated the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere and that the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere was much higher than what it is now.
Scientists have been studying the gaseous composition of the then atmosphere as well as the factors leading to atmospheric changes with time. The data collected from these findings give a glimpse of future atmospheric conditions since carbon emission is rising at a faster pace.
Many international research groups are searching for more old ice cores to unravel unknown data. This search is an expensive elaborate process that requires drilling deep into the Earth at extremely low temperatures. Searching for old ice cores is not always guaranteed success. Even if the operation is a success the challenge of protecting the ice core from contamination involves a lot of hardships. Any contact with the surface results in the valuable data flowing in vain.
How to find out the age of the ancient ice core?
Marie Bergelin and her research team, in 2016, were aware of the million-year-old ice core buried deep in the glaciers of Ong Valley. The team carried out the extraction of the ice core in 2017-2018. They have also collected some glacial rock samples from 2011-2012.
Marie used a new model to calculate the age of the ice core instead of using the traditional method such as the carbon-isotope study. The new model takes into account the accumulation of rare isotopes such as neon, beryllium, and aluminum present in the ice. Since the recently found five-million –years old ice core is composed of two layers; the older one is 4.3 to 5 million years old and the other is 2.9 million years old; the researcher learned that there was an uneven concentration of isotopes in the core.
If the new dating model accurately calculates the age of the ice core, it would help to draw a timeline of the atmospheric events right from five million years. Researchers believe it would not only predict the future environment but also might solve the ongoing climate problems.
