Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Antarctic Ice Core Sets New US Record

The longest ice core ever drilled by United States scientists was recently recovered. The ice core is the second longest ever drilled measuring 10,928 feet. The ice core was drilled over a course of 5 years from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). The previous US record was an ice core from Greenland. The longest ever ice core was 12,142 feet and was drilled by Russians in the 1990s by scientists at the Antarctic Vostok station.

The new ice core contains over 100,000 years of climate history. The past 40,000 years of climate date is especially good quality in this ice core, which is being referred to as the WAIS Divide core.

Read more about this here.

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