Japanese Drill in Antarctic Ice
25.01.2006 - Other
Reuters announced that Japanese researchers said they had dug up ice in the Antarctic ice cap estimated to be one million years old that could give more clues than ever about climate and environmental changes.
To extract this ice, the Japanese mission headed by the National Institute of Polar Research drilled down more than 3 kilometers in the Antarctic ice cap. Yoshiyuki Fujii said the cores are among the oldest samples yet extracted by scientists.
Scientists hope that these samples will give them an insight into changes to the earth's climate caused by an inversion of the earth's magnetic field that occurred around 790,000 years ago and during which the earth's magnetic poles switched entirely.
These samples will also further highlight the threat from global warming by giving another record of carbon dioxide and methane levels in the atmosphere.
