Aus plans drill of ancient ice core
2012-12-16 14:08
Sydney - Australia on Saturday announced plans to drill a 2
000-year-old ice core in the heart of Antarctica in a bid to retrieve a frozen
record of how the planet has evolved and what might be in store.
The Aurora Basin North project involves scientists from
Australia, France, Denmark and the United States who hope it will also advance
the search for the scientific "holy grail" of the million-year-old
ice core.
The project, in a area that harbours some of the deepest ice
in the frozen continent, over 3km thick, will give experts access to some of
the most detailed records yet of past climate in the vast region.
Australian Environment Minister Tony Burke said such drills
were critically important to understanding how the climate has naturally varied
to help predict future responses to global climate change.
"Ice cores provide the written history of our
atmosphere and our water," he said in announcing the project which will
start with a French team traversing the site in December next year.
The eight-week drill through 400m of ice, 600km inland from
Australia's Casey Station in the continent's east, will follow soon after.
"Seeking ice cores from this new area where there is
much higher snowfall than other inland sites provides a massive increase in the
level of detail which lives within the ice," Burke added.
"We have had information that is 2 000 years old
before, but we have never had access to this sort of detail which we believe
lies deep within this part of the ice."
He said it was an international effort in the quest for even
older ice.
"It is expected that this will lead to actual drilling
for a one million-year-old core by various international consortia in the
coming years," he said.
