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A unique ice core is currently being examined in the Alfred Wegener Institute's ice laboratory: the oldest continuous ice core that has ever been drilled on Earth. As part of the EU-funded Beyond EPICA - Oldest Ice project, a research consortium set up a drilling camp on the high plateau in East Antarctica in 2019. Up until January 2025, international teams drilled over 2,800 metres of continuous ice during the Antarctic summer months. This ice core includes air bubbles that enable direct measurements of greenhouse gases from the last 1.2 million years and presumably beyond – marking a historic milestone for climate research.
Initial analyses confirm that the ice drilled in the course of the Beyond EPICA - Oldest Ice (BEOI) project is more than 1.2 million years old – meaning that the researchers have achieved their goal of sampling the so-called Middle Pleistocene transition, which took place around 900,000 to 1.2 million years ago. During this time, the periodicity in the alternation of cold and warm periods changed from the previous 41,000 years to today’s figure of 100,000 years. The earth's orbital parameters such as the tiltangle, the solar constant and the ice albedo determine these cycles. But why the Earth system had shifted in this manner remains one of the greatest mysteries of climate science, which this project aims to solve. In particular, as the cycles of the Earth's orbital parameters have not altered over the past few million years, an internal amplification factor (such as e. g. changing greenhouse gas concentrations, varying summer insolation, or the removal of sediments from the North American continent) must have changed fundamentally in the course of this transition.
Understanding the frequency of ice age cycles is not only important for the past history of planet Earth and humanity to date, but also for our future. Analysing the BEOI core will help us to better understand the processes underlying the mid-Pleistocene transition. The fact that this transition took place is known from sediment cores. Different to sediment cores, however, an ice core contains air inclusions, enabling the direct measurement of greenhouse gases, for example CO2. Identifying the connection between the carbon cycle and the temperature of our planet and implementing it into future climate models is another goal the scientists are pursuing.
A wide variety of different analyses are on the agenda to unlock all these secrets from the ice. In order to ensure that all project participants receive the material they need, there is a sophisticated cutting plan in place that various teams are now working through in the cold laboratory of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). The ice comes from Antarctica in carefully numbered one-metre-long pieces, thus specifying what depth it originates from and designating top and the bottom for proper orientation. Two horizontal sections divide each core lengthwise into three large sub-samples. And slips of paper providing information on orientation and depth accompany each piece dispatched to the various stations: One sub-sample is put straight back into storage and serves as archive material for later research, when new methods might possibly be available. Another section is polished and then scanned to record the layering of the core and its structure. A lot of dust, for example, indicates that the section stems from a cold period, while little dust indicates a warm period. Dust and other impurities also change the conductivity of the ice, which is determined in a further step. The core is then split further: Vertical cuts divide it into pieces of different lengths, which are transported to the laboratories of the participating institutions for subsequent analyses. The isotopes of various elements are analysed both from the trapped air bubbles and from the water in the sub-sections, allowing very precise age dating and conclusions to be drawn on the composition of greenhouse gases.
Historical profile: (Beyond) EPICA
• From 1996 to 2004, the EPICA project (European project for ice coring in Antarctica) drilled an approximately 3,500 metre long ice core containing ice that is around 800,000 years old. The structure of the Antarctic ice pack differs from region to region, meaning that this core was younger than the one now drilled, in spite of its greater depth. Analyses and evaluations were conducted in a subsequent funding phase (2004-2008).
• From 2016-2019, the Alfred Wegener Institute coordinated the selection of the drilling location, the technology development and logistical preparations for Beyond EPICA - Oldest Ice (BEOI). The aim was to find a location with ice that is at least 1.2 million years old, thereby closing the gap of the Middle Pleistocene transition.
• 2019-2026 marks the current BEOIC drilling phase under the auspices of the Institute of Polar Sciences of the National Research Council of Italy, ISP-CNR. Following the successful drilling of ice that is more than 1.2 million years old, the plan for the coming season envisages obtaining additional material from the oldest part of the ice core by drilling the lower section of the ice core again in parallel.
• Project funding is planned for further analysis and evaluation.
About the Beyond EPICA - Oldest Ice project:
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 815384. The project was also supported by national partners and funding organisations in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Project website: https://www.beyondepica.eu/en/
Consortium:
• Institute of Polar Sciences of the National Research Council of Italy, ISP-CNR, Italy (lead organization)
• Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, AWI, Germany
• British Antarctic Survey, BAS (United Kingdom)
• French Polar Institute, IPEV (France)
• National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, ENEA (Italy)
• National Scientific Research Centre, CNRS (France)
• Utrecht University (Netherlands)
• Norwegian Polar Institute, NPI (Norway)
• University of Stockholm (Sweden)
• University of Bern (Switzerland)
• University of Copenhagen (Denmark)
• Brussels University (Belgium)
Dr. Maria Hörhold
maria.hoerhold@awi.de
+49(0)4714831-2135
Prof. Frank Wilhelms
Frank.Wilhelms@awi.de
+49(0)4714831-1551
Prof. Pascal Bohleber
pascal.bohleber@awi.de
+49(0)4714831-1213
Dr. Daniela Jansen
Daniela.Jansen@awi.de
+49(0)4714831-1347
https://multimedia.awi.de/pincollection.jspx?collectionName=%7Bd0065569-f6c2-4f1... more printable images
https://we.tl/t-oEhQELNOIC Video material from the Alfred Wegener Institute's ice laboratory and from the arrival of the cores in Bremerhaven
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YHkb2L5MmKQ9Me8kISWvIaBwTNBrjqIA?usp=sha... project coordination has made photo and video material from the drilling camp
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