Beyond EPICA Project Recovers Earth's Oldest Continuous Ice-Core Record in Antarctica

Key facts

• The Beyond EPICA project aims to retrieve continuous Antarctic ice cores dating back as early as 1.5 million years ago.
• The drilling operation is conducted by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) at Little Dome C in East Antarctica.
• Since starting in 2021, the project has successfully obtained a continuous ice-core record spanning more than 1.2 million years.
• The mission focuses on studying the Mid-Pleistocene Transition by analysing concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane trapped in ancient air bubbles.
• This initiative follows the EPICA Dome C ice core project, which previously established a climatic record dating back approximately 800,000 years.