Scientists dig deep into Antarctic ice to study climate change

Scientists will use a state-of-the-art drill to dig 3 km deep in the Antarctic ice, with the goal of learning more about the Earth's past and the future climate outlook.

The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) unveiled the new exercise on Monday. Made of titanium, stainless steel and aluminum bronze, the drill 9 meters long (30 feet long) can withstand temperatures of up to -55 degrees Celsius (-67 degrees Fahrenheit) . The project will begin in 2021 and it will take about four years to drill the full depth.

"At the end, there is a sharp point that works a bit like a trephine saw and cuts through a plug of ice," said Matt Filipowski, project manager. "Then the drilling chamber actually retains that portion of ice, then we drill the drill up to the top, on the surface, and then we pull out that long cylindrical core, and then we start the process over again."

The drill will be able to extract about three meters of ice at a time, all to help scientists better understand climate change. This is no small feat: this drill requires a 500-tonne mobile base that will allow personnel and equipment to travel to a location about 1200 km (750 miles) from the Antarctic coast.

"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 at the Australian Associated Press.

Scientists are essentially looking for tiny bubbles of air trapped in the ice that will allow them to understand the changing climate over the last million years. Each air pocket is essentially a time capsule of what the planet was in the past. If they can follow this change, they can hopefully better understand how the climate is changing today.

"We want to get this ice cream, analyze these time capsules and understand what [carbon dioxide] did it at that time, about a million years ago, when the climate changed, "van Ommen told the Australian Associated Press.

Something happened about a million years ago that fundamentally changed the way glaciation works: the planet went from an ice age every 40,000 years to a every 100,000 years. If scientists can find out what made this change, they might be able to determine the cause and if we experience a similar one.

Hundreds of thousands of people around the world participated in a series of climatic strikes on Friday. There is serious pressure to stop (or slow down) climate change before it is too late. This type of Antarctic research could be the key to determining exactly how to do it.

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