Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development
Antarctica: A Decisive Campaign to Reach 1.5-Million-Year-Old Ice
The fourth campaign of the Beyond EPICA - Oldest Ice project has begun at the remote Little Dome C site, situated at an altitude of 3,200 meters with average summer temperatures of -35°C
A research team from twelve European scientific institutions has begun the fourth and decisive drilling campaign of the Beyond EPICA - Oldest Ice project at the Little Dome C camp, located 35 kilometers from Italian-French Concordia Station, in Antarctica. This international endeavor, led by the Institute of Polar Sciences of the National Research Council (Cnr-Isp), aims to drill from the depth reached last season, 1,836 meters, down to 2,750 meters, where the bedrock is expected to be found. Ice at this depth could hold records of Earth’s climate history dating back as far as 1.5 million years, revealing, for the first time, direct information on atmospheric temperature and greenhouse gas concentrations over such an extended period.
The team, consisting of 16 scientists and logistics staff, will work over a two-month period in Antarctic summer conditions, with average temperatures of -35°C, at the remote Little Dome C camp, at an altitude of 3,200 meters above sea level.
After the camp reopening operations, the team started the drilling activities a few days ago, having already reached a depth of more than 1900 meters.
“We are facing a very delicate and pivotal mission: our goal is to reach the bedrock within this campaign and transport the ice core samples back to Europe while maintaining a cold chain temperature of at least -50°C” explains Carlo Barbante, full professor at Ca' Foscari University of Venice, senior associate member of the Institute of Polar Sciences of the National Research Council of Italy, and coordinator of Beyond EPICA. “If the team succeeds, it will mark a historic moment for climate and environmental science. Additionally, this achievement will allow us to focus the next and final campaign on replicating the deeper part of the ice core and beginning the closure of Little Dome C camp.”
“We are currently in the sixth and penultimate year of European funding. The outcome of this campaign will be fundamental for meeting the work plan and achieving the expected results agreed with the European Commission”, says Chiara Venier, research technologist at Cnr-Isp and project manager of Beyond EPICA.
The ice core from Beyond EPICA will provide unprecedented information on past climate and atmospheric composition during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, a period between 900,000 and 1.2 million years ago when glacial cycles shifted from a 41,000-year to a 100,000-year cycle. The reasons for this change remain one of science’s mysteries, which this project aims to address.
“The isotopic analyses that will be directly performed in the field on the Beyond EPICA ice core, will be matched with the previous EPICA ice core drilled at Dome C, allowing a preliminary dating of the freshly drilled ice,” says Barbara Stenni, full professor at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
The Beyond EPICA (European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica) - Oldest Ice project has been 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. In addition to the CNR and Ca' Foscari University of Venice, the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy, and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) is responsible, together with the French Polar Institute (IPEV), for managing the logistics.
“The transfer of ice cores from Little Dome C to European laboratories while maintaining a -50°C cold chain between the two hemispheres was a significant challenge for ENEA logistics,” says Gianluca Bianchi Fasani, senior researcher at ENEA-UTA and head of ENEA logistics for Beyond EPICA. “A strategy was developed involving the design of specialized climate cells and precise scheduling of PNRA's air and naval assets.”
Beyond EPICA - Oldest Ice activities benefit from synergy with research conducted under the National Antarctic Research Program (PNRA), funded by Italy’s Ministry of University and Research (MUR) and managed by CNR for scientific coordination, ENEA for the logistical planning and organization of activities at Antarctic bases, and OGS for the technical and scientific management of the icebreaker Laura Bassi.
Participants in the 2024/2025 campaign: Federico Scoto from CNR-Isp, Matthias Hüther, Manuela Krebs, Gunther Lawer, Johannes Lemburg, Martin Leonhardt and Frank Wilhelms from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Inès Gay from IPEV, Danilo Collino and Michele Scalet from ENEA, Marie Bouchet and Ailsa Chung from CNRS, Barbara Seth and Lison Soussaintjean from the University of Bern, Julien Westhoff from the University of Copenhagen and Lisa Ardoin from the Université Libre de Bruxelles.
