Three-year European project worth 2,2 million euros to decipher the history of the climate
Glaciologists and climatologists from ten European countries are searching Antarctica for the oldest ice on Earth. The goal is to find the point on the Antarctic ice sheet from which to extract the ice core that allows us to go further back in the history of the planet. This temporal archive will make it possible to decipher the processes of the climate system of the past, to improve projections on future ones. The European Commission finances the “Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice” (BE-OI) project with 2,2 million euros. Coordinates the German Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research (Awi).
Italy participates in the National Antarctic Research Program (Pnra), funded by the Ministry of Education, University and Research (Miur), and is present in the consortium with the National Agency for New Technologies, energy and sustainable economic development (Enea) and the University of Bologna. Scientists from Italian universities (Ca' Foscari Venice, Florence and Milan-Bicocca), from the Institute for the Dynamics of Environmental Processes of the National Research Council (Idpa-Cnr) and from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (Ingv) are involved .
Finding ice from a million and a half years ago. This is the goal of “Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice” (BE-OI). To give an idea, consider that the oldest ice sample available today dates back to 800 years ago. These ice cores contain air particles dating back to the time of their formation. Analyzed in the laboratory, they reveal the composition of the atmosphere in the past.
"What we still haven't been able to understand is why the cycle of glacial and interglacial periods changed between 900 thousand and 1,2 million years ago", explains Carlo Barbante, professor at Ca' Foscari University of Venice and director of Idpa-Cnr .
Before the so-called mid-Pleistocene transition, glacial and interglacial periods alternated approximately every 40 years. Since then, however, each period has lasted about 100 years. This knowledge derives, for example, from the analysis of sediment samples, which however lack information on the gases present in the atmosphere.
"We cannot investigate the role of greenhouse gases, because we do not have adequate samples to do so, as the only geological archives that contain the chemical composition of the atmosphere are ice cores," says Barbara Stenni, a professor at the University of Ca Foscari Venice.
The BE-OI project was born to fill this gap, with geophysical analyses, rapid drilling technologies and ice dating in the field. Furthermore, drilling technologies will be further developed and tested. The first field work will start shortly: in Antarctica the glaciologist Massimo Frezzotti (Enea) and the geophysicists Stefano Urbini (Ingv) and Luca Vittuari (University of Bologna), together with colleagues from the other institutes involved in the project, will analyze the thickness of the ice, their physical characteristics and the topography of the bedrock at two different sites both from the air and on the ground. The thickness of the ice sheet is only a first indicator of the presence of ice from the past, because the accumulation of snow and the flows of ice from the heart of Antarctica towards the coast determine how old the ice sheets are.
During the field research programme, scientists will simultaneously measure snow accumulation, ice dynamics and use new technologies to drill through ice and measure temperatures.
"During previous studies we have identified key areas where we expect to find the oldest ice archives on Earth - explains Professor Olaf Eisen (Alfred Wegener Institute), project coordinator - Now we have to verify this and it is important for us to learn as much as possible about the processes of deposition and ice dynamics”.
In addition to these scientific questions, the project also aims to bring together the technological and scientific expertise necessary to tackle this deep drilling project, to refine the scientific planning and project management, and to define budgets and financing. To generate the maximum scientific advance, the largest European scientific communities dedicated to paleoclimatology and the study of climate models are involved.
The project
The Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice (BE-OI) consortium and its international partners synthesize a concentration of scientific expertise and infrastructure for the analysis of ice cores that is unique worldwide. BE-OI is a Coordination and Support Action. It presents the scientific, technological and financial basis for the challenge of extracting ice samples dating back up to 1,5 million years in a future project. It will be an important contribution to future exploration of Antarctica and promises relevant discoveries on climate and global carbon dioxide fluxes. This new knowledge will improve future projections on climate developments with reliable quantitative data and allow for the formulation of more targeted strategies to address the societal challenges posed by global change.
BE-OI is the European contribution to the global search for a suitable location for the extraction of deep ice cores. The consortium takes into account the preliminary surveys in the Dome C area in the vicinity of the Italian/French base of Concordia and Dome Fuji, both promising regions in eastern Antarctica. Other consortia will address other areas under the umbrella of the International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences.
Consortium members:
Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research (Awi, Germany), Coordinator
Institut Polaire Français Paul Émile Victor (Ipev, France)
ENEA - National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (Italy)
Center National de la Recherche Scientifique (Cnrs, France)
Natural Environment Research Council - British Antarctic Survey (Great Britain)
Universiteit Utrecht – Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research (Netherlands)
Norwegian Polar Institute (Norway)
Stockholms Universitet (Sweden)
University of Bern (Switzerland)
University of Bologna (Italy)
University of Cambridge (Great Britain)
Kobenhavns Universitet (Denmark)
Free University of Brussels (Belgium)
Lunds Universitet (Sweden)
Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice
Glaciologists and climatologists from ten European countries are searching Antarctica for the oldest ice on Earth. They want to find the point on the Antarctic ice sheet from which to extract the ice core that allows us to go further back in the history of the planet. This sample will make it possible to decipher the processes of the climate system in the past, to improve projections on future ones. “Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice” (BE-OI) is funded by the European Union program for research and innovation Horizon 2020 under project agreement number 730258. The project will run from October 2016 to September 2019 and will bring together experts from 14 institutions from ten European countries, coordinated by the German Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research (Awi). Italy, present in the consortium with Enea and the University of Bologna, is represented by scientists from the Ca' Foscari universities of Venice, Florence and Milan-Bicocca, from the Institute for the dynamics of environmental processes of the National Research Council (Idpa-Cnr) and of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (Ingv).
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