Japanese Science Team Digs Up Million-Year-Old Ice Samples - Oldest Ever

[hatrack]

Japanese researchers said Tuesday they had dug up ice in the Antarctic Ocean estimated to be one million years old that could give more clues than ever about climate and environmental changes. It is believed to be the oldest ice ever retrieved after an 800,000-year-old block collected by European scientists in 2004.

The Japanese mission headed by the National Institute of Polar Research drilled down more than 3,000 meters (about 10,000 feet) in the Antarctic Ocean to pull out the slab deep in the ice core.

The group will bring the ice back to Japan in April for research.

"We need further analysis but the ice is expected to clarify things such as climate and environmental change or the evolution of microbes over the past million years," said Yoshiyuki Fujii, director general at the polar institute.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Japanese_Scientists_Dig_Up_Million_Year_Old_Ice.html

[Maat]

1. Thanks for the post ... but ..

I learned in my intelligent design class that these things were just a hoax, the Earth only being about six thousand years old.

Just kidding! Nice find.

:evilgrin:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. Watch somebody accidentally use it to

make a margarita..... wouldn't that chap their asses. :)

[Oerdin]

3. The problem with these really old ice cores

Is that compaction has forcemost of the gases out of the ice. The pore spaces get squeezed so tightly by the weight of the ice above them that most of the gases are gone.