After an extraordinary journey that began at the Mario Zucchelli scientific station in Antarctica, the precious ice cores from the Beyond EPICA project have finally reached Trieste, Italy. Transported aboard the Italian icebreaker Laura Bassi, their voyage took them through New Zealand, across the Atlantic Ocean, and all the way to the northern shores of the Adriatic. These ancient ice samples hold vital clues to Earth’s climate history and mark a major milestone in polar research.

The Beyond EPICA ice cores have successfully reached Bremerhaven, Germany, following several days of transport in a freezer container via truck. The cores will now undergo processing in a cold-room facility under controlled atmospheric conditions to ensure the preservation of their integrity.

The ice cores extracted in Antarctica as part of the Beyond EPICA - Oldest Ice project, funded by the European Commission and coordinated by the Institute of Polar Sciences of the National Research Council of Italy (Cnr), are currently en route to Europe aboard the research vessel Laura Bassi. These ice cores, extracted up to a depth of 2,800 meters, will be processed and analysed in the laboratories of the European research institutions involved in the project. They are expected to reveal crucial details about the Earth's climate and atmospheric history, dating back over 1.2 million years.

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