A global race is on to drill for the oldest known layers of Antarctic ice so researchers can peer back in time to a warmer climate to better understand the planet’s hotter future
“The big question we have is ‘How much warmer do we think our world is going to get as we continue to pump CO2 into our atmosphere? I think it's a catchy headline to say, ‘Oh, we found the oldest ice,’ but there’s a reason why we’re interested in these earlier intervals. And it’s because they were warmer.”—Sarah Shackleton, COLDEX team member & postdoctoral researcher in paleoclimatology, Princeton University
- Published OnFeb 9, 2023
- PublicationScientific American
- AuthorChristian Elliott
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Comer Fellows among leaders in National Science Foundation-funded Center for Oldest Ice Exploration (COLDEX)
By searching for Antarctica's oldest ice, scientists from across the U.S. will learn more about how the Earth's climate has changed over the past several million years. The Center for Oldest Ice Exploration, or COLDEX, was created under a five-year, $25 million Science and Technology Center award.