In a groundbreaking achievement for climate science, an international team has successfully drilled a 2,800-meter-long ice core in Antarctica in January 2025. The Beyond EPICA-Oldest Ice project, funded by the European Commission, reached bedrock at the remote Little Dome C site, extracting ice estimated to be over 1.2 million years old.
The core samples, gathered by scientists from twelve scientific institutions across ten European nations, hold critical data about Earth's climate and atmospheric history. These samples contain historical atmospheric temperatures and preserved air samples with greenhouse gases, offering insights into the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, a period of significant change in glacial cycles.
The ice core will be transported to Europe in specialized cold containers for analysis. Scientists hope to unlock details about the relationship between the carbon cycle and the planet's temperature, extending our understanding of climate history far beyond previous records.