European researchers to drill for ancient Antarctic ice
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A group of 14 European scientific institutions plan to retrieve the world's oldest ice as part of research into past climate change.
The consortium led by the Germany-based Alfred Wegener Institute said Tuesday it has identified an area in Antarctica, nicknamed "Little Dome C," that should harbor ice as old as 1.5 million years.
So-called ice core measurements are crucial for scientists' understanding of past climatic changes on Earth and the models they use to predict future global warming or cooling.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Current ice core measurements provide reliable data going back only about 800,000 years.
At a meeting in Vienna, the institutes said they spent the past three years working with American, Australian, Japanese and Russian colleagues using radar to determine the best possible site for drilling.