UCSD researchers begin expedition for ancient ice | Joshua Emerson Smith

It’s summer in Antarctica, and scientists from all around the world are flying back to research stations on the continent as part of a now years-long race to uncover world’s oldest ice and better predict planetary warming, sea level rise and more. Trapped in the ancient glaciers are tiny air bubbles — time capsules documenting changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and ocean temperatures over hundreds of thousands of years. If a rare sample of undisturbed ice can be located and ice-core samples drilled out, the results could be a scientific timeline of climate change dating back more than a million years.