Science
Stunning Footage Captures Descent Into Antarctic Borehole, Unveiling Earth’s Oldest Ice
An incredible finding has been made by a camera that was dropped hundreds of feet through an opening in the Antarctic ice.
Secrets hidden beneath the cold surface of the continent are kept safe by ice sheets that have existed for millions of years.
Some Antarctic ice sheets are hundreds of meters deep and have been frozen for centuries, in contrast to seasonal ice that melts and then refreezes.
Austin Carter, a PhD candidate with the Centre for Old Ice Exploration (COLDEX), lowered a camera in a 305-foot hole at the Allan Hills Blue Ice Area beneath Antarctica in 2022.
After that, he shared the outcomes on TikTok.
We witnessed an amazing freezing descent as Carter allowed the camera to drop all 93 meters to the bottom.
Before it speeds down the tiny hole, the footage begins with Carter at ground level waving goodbye to the camera.
Things quickly lose their sense of scale as the camera descends, revealing the various ice layers that are present at lower altitudes. The cold, steep tube began to resemble a hyperspace bobsled ride, almost unearthly.
The high-speed video was nevertheless appreciated by spectators.
“Honestly this was really scary,” one reviewer said candidly.
“Why do I feel claustrophobic lol,” another user asked.
“Bro imagine getting dropped in there,” someone else chimed in.
Another viewer was more curious about why all this was necessary: “Much respect, and pls take no offence, but why? Why spend time and money for a study on old ice?”
Well, we can learn the answer from the ice.
Research teams like COLDEX can uncover a great deal about our prehistoric past. We can learn about ‘the fundamental features of our climate system’ by studying the ice, as Carter stated.
Researchers can examine historical warming and cooling trends by examining materials from various depths.
With this information, scientists should be able to more accurately forecast how the current climate crisis will affect our world, including potential effects on those same ice sheets.
Some of the ice from the borehole Carter investigated is an incredible 2.7 million years old, to put it in perspective. That’s from a time far before anyone ever lived on Earth, so it’s really from a time that’s difficult to comprehend.
It’s interesting to note that, despite being drilled about 20 years ago, the hole has been used repeatedly and has grown into a tiny, permanent fixture in the ice sheet.
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