National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: New Ice Core Reveals 800,000 Years of Climate History


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Drilling 3,260 meters (10,695 feet) under the Antarctic ice, scientists have brought up an ice core that pushes the climate record back another 60,000 years to 800,000—making it the longest uninterrupted climate history.

The ice core revealed Earth's polar temperature has swung dramatically—by as much as 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit)—during that period.

Photograph by Paul Souders/Getty