Climate research project in the Antarctic close to a breakthrough

Work of the international drilling team at Camp Little Dome C in the Antarctic.
Work of the international drilling team at Camp Little Dome C in the Antarctic. The sun is deceptive: with average temperatures of minus 55 degrees Celsius, the working conditions are extreme. © Beyond EPICA project

The search for the world’s oldest ice in Antarctica is entering a decisive phase. In this major European project, researchers in Antarctica are attempting to extract drill cores containing climate information from the past 1.5 million years. The University of Bern is playing an important role in this.

At the beginning of the new year, an international drilling team is to penetrate to 2,750 meters at Camp Little Dome C in the Antarctic. At this depth, the Antarctic ice sheet meets the bedrock. And there, in the oldest ice on the planet, the researchers expect to find a unique climate and environmental archive.

’Only ice contains past air trapped in bubbles, which makes it possible to directly measure past greenhouse gas concentrations,’ says Hubertus Fischer, Professor of Experimental Climate Physics and member of the Oeschger Center for Climate Research at the University of Bern. He is one of the driving forces behind the EU project ’Beyond EPICA - Oldest Ice’, which is currently in its decisive phase.

Venturing into uncharted scientific territory

As in previous drilling campaigns, two researchers from Bern are currently on site as part of a 16-strong team. In the three previous drilling campaigns, a depth of over 1,800 meters has already been reached. ’When we started the preparations over ten years ago, it was highly uncertain where and in what quality we would find such old ice,’ explains Hubertus Fischer. Now, however, the chances are good that the expedition’s goal will be reached before the end of the current drilling season and the unique treasure trove of data will be unearthed.

’We are entering uncharted scientific territory with this drilling campaign,’ explains the Bernese climate professor. The ice core, which is currently being excavated, is intended in particular to contribute to a better understanding of the interplay between warm and cold periods. About a million years ago - as studies of marine sediments show - a change in this back and forth took place. Why this change occurred is a mystery, but climate researchers suspect that greenhouse gases, among other things, played a decisive role. This assumption is now to be tested using the oldest ice.

Bernese researchers develop new analysis techniques

Financed by European and Swiss research funds, Hubertus Fischer’s team has succeeded in developing completely new analysis techniques. The special thing about it is that all greenhouse gases can be measured simultaneously with a single analysis. What’s more, the air extracted from the ice samples is not lost during the measurements, but can be used for further research afterwards.

Hubertus Fischer speaks of ’perfect recycling’ and says: ’For an ordinary ice core, the huge effort we have to put into it would never be justified’, but it is for the oldest ice on earth, of which only very small quantities are available.