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Ice drilled from Antarctica holds an unbroken record of Earth's climate going back at least 1.2 million years. The European Beyond EPICA team reached bedrock at Little Dome C, about 2.8 kilometres down, in January 2025; the top 2,480 metres can be read in order, while the deepest ice is deformed.

Little Dome C, Antarctica, 2025

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The story behind the card

Beyond EPICA follows the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica, or EPICA, whose core from nearby Dome C, drilled between 1996 and 2004, reached ice about 800,000 years old. Scientists wanted older ice because between about 1.2 million and 700,000 years ago Earth's ice ages changed rhythm, from roughly one every 41,000 years to roughly one every 100,000 years. The cause of this shift, called the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, is still debated. As snow is pressed into ice it traps tiny bubbles of air, so the core holds real samples of the ancient atmosphere, including carbon dioxide and methane, while the ice itself records past temperatures. Laboratories across Europe are now analysing it.

Türkçe oku
Antarktika'da sondajla çıkarılan buz, Dünya ikliminin en az 1,2 milyon yıl geriye uzanan kesintisiz bir kaydını saklıyor. Avrupalı Beyond EPICA ekibi Ocak 2025'te Little Dome C'de yaklaşık 2,8 kilometre derinlikte ana kayaya ulaştı. Buzun üstteki 2.480 metresi sırasıyla okunabiliyor, en derindeki buz ise bozulmuş durumda.
Little Dome C, Antarktika, 2025

Beyond EPICA, Avrupa'nın Antarktika'daki buz sondajı projesi EPICA'nın devamıdır. EPICA'nın 1996–2004 arasında yakınlardaki Dome C'de sondajla çıkardığı buz sütunu, yaklaşık 800.000 yıllık buza ulaşmıştı. Bilim insanları daha eski buz arıyordu, çünkü yaklaşık 1,2 milyon ile 700.000 yıl önce arasında buzul çağlarının ritmi değişti: Buzul dönemleri kabaca 41.000 yılda bir gelirken 100.000 yılda bir gelmeye başladı. Orta Pleistosen Geçişi denen bu değişimin nedeni hâlâ tartışılıyor. Kar sıkışıp buza dönüşürken içinde küçük hava kabarcıkları hapsolur. Böylece buz, karbondioksit ve metan dâhil eski atmosferden gerçek örnekler saklar; buzun kendisi de geçmişteki sıcaklıkları kaydeder. Buz şimdi Avrupa'daki laboratuvarlarda inceleniyor.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Dome C
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