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Submitted by: Alek Jones
A new discovery has recently brought many questions to the future of climate change with the discovery of an ancient ice core that was drilled out in Greenland when a team of international scientists working on the North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling (NEEM) project hit bedrock. The team achieved this monumental find after a full two summers of work, which involved drilling down more than 1.5 miles to try and assess the risks of abrupt future climate change. Some of the key implications and findings surrounding this find include the following:
The ice core originates from the Eemian interglacial period, which was from about 115,000 to 130,000 years ago.
The temperatures at this time were 3.6 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit above todays temperatures.
The Eemian period was the most recent interglacial period on Earth.
During this period there was a huge deal less ice on Greenland, and in addition to this, sea levels were 15 feet or more higher than today.
Annual ice layers that had formed in Greenland over millions of years through compressed snow showed interesting facts about past temperatures, precipitation levels and the contents of ancient atmospheres.
Ice cores from previous ice drilling projects indicated that temperatures had risen in the Northern Hemisphere by more than 20 degrees Fahrenheit in the space of 50 years.
This latest project to remove ice cores give a far more accurate indication of past changes in temperatures and greenhouse gas concentrations during the Eemian, giving extremely important and beneficial data of climate change on Earth.
Scientists state that the ice cores will have rich DNA and pollen which will give data on plants that were present in Greenland before it was emerged in ice.
Some parts of the ice just above the bedrock in the location go beyond the Eemian interglacial period and even into the previous ice age containing rocks and other debris that have not seen sunlight in over a hundred thousand years.
A key part of the research project is to determine how much smaller the Greenland ice sheet was 120,000 years ago, at which time the temperatures were much higher than present day temperatures which could give key findings on temperature change trends.
The general state of the Earth’s climate is largely affected by how much heat is stored in the atmosphere. The causes of climate change is not only due to man-made pollution of the atmosphere but also because of changes in the amount of greenhouse gasses in the air which have occurred naturally during the history of the Earth. Then there are also other processes that change the climate of the earth very, very slowly over millions of years. This is why research projects like the NEEM ice drilling project in Greenland are essential for us to understand these natural processes.
Much has been said about climate change over the last few years and with remarkable findings such as this ice core, it shows yet again how many secrets the ice holds, for our planet and beyond.
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