Some of the world’s oldest ice ever recovered from Antarctica has arrived in the United Kingdom for climate analysis.

The ice core — drilled from a depth of 2,800 metres in the East Antarctic Peninsula — is expected to hold a climate record stretching back over 1.5 million years.

The recovery nearly doubles the current 800,000-year ice core record.

“So this is a really exciting project to work on because we really are exploring a completely unknown time in our history, and what we’re hoping is we’re going to unlock all these amazing secrets,” Liz Thomas, head of the Ice Cores team at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in Cambridge, said.

Liz Thomas shows off one of the ice cores. (Supplied: PNRA/IPEV)

‘Unlock Earth’s climate evolution’

The ice core will undergo analysis over the coming years at BAS and other European laboratories.

Scientists aim to unlock insights into Earth’s climate evolution, focusing on greenhouse gas concentrations, atmospheric temperatures, wind patterns, and sea ice extent.

A key objective is to understand why Earth’s glacial-interglacial cycles shifted from 41,000 to 100,000 years about 1 million years ago.

This gives scientists context for predicting future climate responses to rising greenhouse gas levels.

“We’re interested in that period prior to a million years ago because during that time there’s evidence to suggest that the ice sheets were actually smaller, sea levels were potentially higher, and CO2 similar to today,” Dr Thomas said.

Inside this lab, scientists hope to solve a climate puzzle Photo shows Team of scientists inspect antarctic ice core sample 2025-05-30 10:05:00 Australian scientists have started analysing the first batch of samples from the “Million Year Ice Core” project.

Ice cores capture direct evidence of past atmospheric conditions through trapped air bubbles, which will be analysed as they are released from the ice as it is slowly melted in a process called Continuous Flow Analysis.

The findings will shed light on the link between atmospheric CO2 and climate during a previously uncharted period.

Funded by the European Commission, Beyond EPICA involves 12 institutions across 10 European countries.

Reuters