Beyond Epica: the results of the coring campaign

Historic result for the Beyond Epica - Oldest Ice project: the coriing campaign has reached a depth of 2,800 meters, with the extraction of an ice core carrying direct climate information over a period of time of about 1.2 million years.

According to Carlo Barbante, full professor at Ca' Foscari University Venice and coordinator of the project, this is “the longest continuous record of our past climate,” an extremely important milestone which has been made possible thanks to the prolonged efforts of several research institutes at European level and the passionate work of “scientists, researchers and logistical staff involved in the field.”

The information obtained from this decisive coring campaign can help investigate the causes of the slowdown in glacial cycles that characterized the Middle-Pleistocene Transition (900-000-1.2 Mln years ago), shedding new light on the history of East Antarctic glaciation, one of the project's main goals.

The Beyond EPICA (European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica) - Oldest Ice project, coordinated by the Polar Science Institute of the National Research Council (CNR-Isp), was funded by the European Commission and supported by national partners and funding agencies in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Fondazione Università Ca' Foscari acts as the entity providing technical administrative support for the management of external funds given to the project.

Learn more on  Beyond Epica's website.