WAIS Divide Project Extracts New Ice Core
24.01.2008 - Other
In the framework of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide (WAIS Divide) Ice Core Project, a 580-meter ice core has been recovered. It is the first section of what is hoped to be a 3,465-meter column of ice which will detail 100,000 years of Earth's climate history, including a precise year-by-year record of the last 40,000 years.
While other ice cores have been used to develop longer records of Earth's atmosphere, the record from WAIS Divide will allow a more detailed study of the interaction between previous increases in greenhouse gases and climate change. This information will be used to improve computer models which predict how the current unprecedented high levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will influence future climate.
The dust, chemicals, and air trapped in the core will provide critical information in order to predict the extent to which human activity will alter Earth's climate through the emission of greenhouse gases.
The new core will also allow investigations of biological material in deep ice, which will yield information about biogeochemical processes that control and are controlled by climate, as well as lead to fundamental insights about life on Earth.
