Ice from Earth's warm period found in Antarctica
Scientists just uncovered the oldest known ice on Earth—six million years old—in East Antarctica's Allan Hills.
Thanks to ancient air bubbles trapped inside, this ice acts like a time capsule, showing us what the atmosphere was like when our planet was much warmer and oceans were higher.
Ice is about 6 million years old
The wild terrain and fierce winds at Allan Hills pushed these ancient layers closer to the surface, so researchers only had to drill 100-200 meters deep instead of kilometers.
By studying air from the ice, they found that this region cooled by about 12°C over millions of years, backing up what geologists suspected about Earth's hotter past.
COLDEX team's next steps
Even though the samples aren't continuous, they give scientists rare clues about greenhouse gas levels and ocean heat during a key period in climate history.
The COLDEX team is planning more drilling between 2026 and 2031—hoping to push our climate record even further back and help us understand how Earth's systems behaved when things were much warmer than today.