Ancient Tibetan ice core reveals climate secrets spanning millennia
Scientists have identified a continuously frozen ice sheet in the Tibetan mountains that preserves atmospheric data from the distant past.
In the high Himalayas, a team of researchers studied an ice sheet on the Guliya plateau, confirming it as one of the oldest continuously frozen ice reserves outside the polar regions. Two cores, each over 300 metres long and drilled in 1992 and 2015, were examined for isotopic composition, trapped gases and radioactive signatures. The findings indicate the ice started accumulating well before the most recent glacial period and still contains layers from that era.
Notably, spikes in beryllium-10 and chlorine-36 point to a historic weakening of Earth’s magnetic field, linking the ice to known geomagnetic events. The ice archive thus provides valuable data for reconstructing past climate and atmospheric changes, though rapid melting threatens its preservation.
Why it matters
The ice core offers rare, long-term climate data that can improve our understanding of past and future climate change.
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