Updated
Photo:
Glaciologist Tas van Ommen is particularly interested in the link between CO2 and temperature. (ABC News: Jane Norman)
Australian scientists in Antarctica have hailed a
$45-million funding boost as a "game-changer" that would allow them to
step up their search for the "holy grail of climate science" — the
Million-Year Ice Core.
More than 20 countries are in the race to
find the ice core, which is like a time capsule deep below the surface
of Antarctica that promises to unlock the past, and help predict the
future of the Earth's climate.Scientists have been extracting ice cores for decades. When ice freezes, it traps tiny bubbles of air, so these ice cores provide an archive of what the Earth's temperature and carbon dioxide levels were like going back hundreds of thousands of years.
The oldest so far is 800,000 years old but scientists need to go back even further to solve one of the great mysteries of climate change — why the cycle of ice ages slowed down a million years ago.
Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist Tas van Ommen said finding the Million-Year Ice Core, and pushing that record back, was the "holy grail of climate science".
"We're particularly interested in the link between CO2 and temperature," he said.
"We know for the last 800,000 years from ice cores that these two things march in lockstep but we don't know what happened beyond that 800,000-year mark."
Finding the oldest ice will be a lengthy, complex and expensive task, so scientists from around the world have spent years modelling Antarctic ice flows and carrying out survey work to figure out where ice would have laid untouched for a million years.
Photo:
The Federal Government recently gave the Australian Antarctic Division a $45-million funding boost. (News Corp: Chris Crerar)
Getting factors right 'bit of baby bear's porridge'
Dr van Ommen said getting all the factors right was a "bit of a baby bear's porridge" but he believed Australia has found a promising location in an area called Dome C — about 1,100 kilometres inland from Australia's Casey Research Station."Once we've found it, we need to set up a camp for about four years, drilling every summer for about three months at a time to drill all the way down through the ice, about three kilometres thick," he said.
The Federal Government recently gave the Australian Antarctic Division a $45-million funding boost, allowing it to buy the right drilling equipment and vehicles needed to get out to Dome C and set up a mobile research station.
Photo:
Finding the oldest ice will be a lengthy, complex and expensive task. (News Corp: Chris Crerar)
Australian Antarctic Division director Nick Gales
described the new money is a "game-changer" that will enable scientists
to get where they need to go, and do the work they need to do."Up until now we haven't been able to do that," he said.
While he hopes Australia will be part of the team that finds the Million-Year Ice Core, Dr Gales said regardless of who won, the whole world would share in the knowledge and "that's the wonderful thing".
"We need to know about our past climate and we need to know about what's driving future climate change and Antarctica is a very important part of that," he said.
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