Frozen in Time

A team of 22 scientists from the Oregon State University-led Center for Oldest Ice Exploration, or COLDEX, spent its first field season in Antarctica in pursuit of the Earth’s oldest ice and the climate records preserved within it. “Just like tree rings, ice layers are fantastic recorders of past climate and the environment, and have the truly unique attribute of preserving samples of ancient air — tiny time capsules we open in the lab that tell us about changes in greenhouse gases and climate over geologic time,” said COLDEX Director Ed Brook, a paleoclimatologist in OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. Drilling focused on the Allan Hills in East Antarctica, a little-studied area where old ice is pushed close to the surface as the East Antarctic ice sheet flows up against the Transantarctic Mountains. Another team flew airborne ice-penetrating radar systems near the South Pole, seeking locations for future drilling. Scientists drilled meters down to collect the ice cores. The cores were then transported by air, sea and land to the National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility in Denver for storage. From there, sections will go out for analysis. COLDEX is an NSF-funded Science and Technology Center formed in 2021 and funded through a five-year $25 million grant.