Beyond EPICA: a storytelling - 8

How to log an ice core

The Beyond EPICA ice cores are slowly being recovered from the Antarctic ice sheet as they contain crucial information about past climate. But to simply have the ice cores is not enough; they need to be cleaned and cataloged, and that is a logger's job. Discover with us the steps of the drilling process taking us closer to the Oldest Ice.

⇒ Interview: Robert Mulvaney, UKRI-BAS

⇒ Interview: Julien Westhoff, UCPH

⇒ Narrative voice: Jessica Marzaro, CNR-ISP

in Beyond EPICA YouTube Channel

Beyond EPICA: a storytelling - 7

How to drill an ice core

The first step to retrieve ice cores from Antarctica is to extract them from the ice cap which covers the continent. Year after year we are going to drill a cylinder of ice with a diameter of 10 cm from the depth of the Antarctic ice sheet, collecting the oldest ice ever drilled. Discover with us the steps of the drilling process taking us closer to the Oldest Ice.

⇒ Interview: Frank Whilelms, AWI

⇒ Narrative voice: Jessica Marzaro, CNR-ISP

in Beyond EPICA YouTube Channel

Stagnant ice and age modelling in the Dome C region, Antarctica

In this article, we combined a numerical model with radar measurements in order to determine the age of ice in the Dome C region of Antarctica. Our results show that at the current ice core drilling sites on Little Dome C (LDC), the ice with age resolution of 20 kyr/m is almost 1.5 Ma at a depth of around 2500m. We also highlight a new potential drill site called North Patch with ice up to 2 Ma. Finally, we explore the nature of a stagnant ice layer at the base of the ice sheet at LDC, which has been independently observed and modelled but is not well understood.

Beyond EPICA Publication # 32

in Publications