UManitoba researcher helps drill ice core that will shed light on climate history

A team of international scientists—which includes University of Manitoba researcher Dorthe Dahl-Jensen—has drilled an ice core that is believed to be the longest continuous climate record in history. The project included drilling down to the bedrock at a remote site in Antarctica and removing an ice core in pieces to be re-assembled in sequence. The sample will be used to provide information about earth’s atmospheric history. “When we look at the ice core, we have small bubbles from the atmosphere that’s 1.2 million years old,” said Dahl-Jensen. “When we take the air out of these bubbles, we can actually see what the concentration of greenhouse gases were back in time, and that’s really unique.”