Scientists from the Brussels universities of VUB and ULB have set their sights on discovering the oldest ice on Earth, which will help understand the long-term impact of climate change on our planet.
During the Belgian winter of 2024-2025, glacier specialist Harry Zekollari will soon work at the VUB together with colleagues from ULB and will go in search of the ice near Belgium's Princess Elisabeth base in Antarctica.
"Small amounts of the Earth's atmosphere from hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of years ago are trapped in the tiny air bubbles in the ice," he said. "Using extremely accurate mass spectrometers, we can now look for all possible isotopes present in the ice. Among other things, those isotopes can help date the ice."
The scientists are mainly interested in the period from 800,000 to 1.2 million years ago, as this was a period of climate change, in the middle of the ice ages. "If we can find ice from that period, we will be able to collect a lot of data on the climate changes that took place during that period and their impact on life on Earth."
Off the beaten track
Ice estimated to be 2.7 million years old has already been drilled by Americans, and in the same drill core 20 years ago, ice of up to 800,000 years old was tapped up, however, this drill core was more than 2.5 kilometres long, which is out of the question for the Belgian team, which has fewer resources.
"For such an undertaking, you need millions of euros just for logistics. So we have to be creative and think out of the box," Zekollari said. The team will therefore search for very old ice close to the surface.
Scientists will date a number of deposits from the old "blue ice" during an initial campaign to select the best site for drilling. Credit: VUB/ ULB
"In doing so, we are guided by the meteorites found by VUB meteorite specialist Steven Goderis's team during their expeditions to the South Pole." This helped researchers date when some of those meteorites landed on Earth. "Some specimens landed in Antarctica more than a hundred thousand years ago which, along with very old ice, were driven to the surface by underground currents in the ice."
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During the first campaign, the team will take the ice for further analysis in the lab. Using radar systems that reflect electromagnetic waves and working with models that can simulate the ice flow, the team will try to find out the thickness of the ice, which has a major influence on the age of the ice.
The team hopes to find enough locations in a 100-kilometre radius around its base for one-off drilling. "We hope that by drilling two to three hundred metres deep, we will already get into enough old ice."
