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Antarctic ice ages millions of years may contain crucial information about the planet's past and help predict climate.
And scientists from Australia's Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) are about to find out.
On Monday, they unveiled a drill designed to reach three kilometers below the surface of the frozen continent.
"What we will be doing in the next few years is solving one of the last big problems in climate science," said glaciologist Tas van Ommen.
The ice, which could be up to 1.5 million years old, is the subject of several international research projects.
"We will see in the ice tiny bubbles trapped between the snowflakes as they burst," van Ommen said. "These little bubbles are time capsules of the past atmosphere.
"We want to get this ice cream, analyze these time capsules and understand what [carbon dioxide] at that time, about a million years ago, when the climate changed.
About 1 million years ago, the Earth went from a 40,000-year ice age cycle to a 100,000-year cycle, van Ommen said.
"[Carbon dioxide] is related to this change and the speed with which the ice ages have worked, "he added.
"We need to understand if the CO2 we release into the atmosphere will have long-term consequences for the Earth in the future."
The drill, made of stainless steel, aluminum, bronze and titanium, is a blend of international and Australian technology and can withstand -55 ° C.
But reaching the buried ice will not be an easy or fast feat. Drilling is expected to begin in 2021 and last four years.
A 500-ton mobile base will transport the equipment to the construction site, 1,200 km from the Antarctic coast.
"We are sending men and women into the most remote extreme environment on the planet," said DAA Director Kim Ellis. "It's a really difficult adventure."
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