Time tunnel: why an Australian expedition is drilling through 2.6km of Antarctic ice

Ancient air trapped deep below the surface could unlock secrets of the Earth’s past and help understand what lies ahead as CO2 in the atmosphere keeps rising

When it reaches about 2.6km beneath the Australian camp at Antarctica’s Little Dome C, the drill will hit ice with tiny pockets of air about 1.5m years old.

The last time those molecules were in the planet’s atmosphere, our human ancestor homo erectus was just working out how to harness fire to cook and stay warm.

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