What are the Vostok ice cores?

Ice core samples taken at the Vostok station are used to collect data on historical carbon dioxide levels. The data consist of measurements of the percentage of atmospheric gasses, such as CO2 in fossil air bubbles that have been trapped in snow flakes and compressed into ice over 400,000 years old.

What does the Vostok ice core reveal?

By analyzing the chemistry of the oxygen atoms in the ice you can also see the pattern of rising and falling temperature over time. Colder during the ice ages, warmer during the interglacial periods. Now put the two lines together… and you can see how closely temperature and carbon dioxide track each other.

Who are the scientist experts who study the ice cores?

Glaciologist Claude Lorius looked 420,000 years into the past and, like an oracle, predicted our future. During his 60-year career, he explored the Antarctic continent, collecting ice cores that would tell the tale of Earth’s climate history.

What is the Vostok ice core and why is it important for us to look at it?

By looking at past concentrations of greenhouse gasses in layers in ice cores, scientists can calculate how modern amounts of carbon dioxide and methane compare to those of the past, and, essentially, compare past concentrations of greenhouse gasses to temperature. Ice coring has been around since the 1950s.

Is the ice age younger than the gas age?

How much younger is a bubble of gas than the ice that surrounds it, at a depth of 250 meters? That’s right! The ice age at 250 m is 9.31 kyr (9310 years) and the gas age is 6.79 kyr (6790 years), so the difference is 2520 years.

How deep is the Vostok ice core?

3,623 m
In January 1998, the collaborative ice-drilling project between Russia, the United States, and France at the Russian Vostok station in East Antarctica yielded the deepest ice core ever recovered, reaching a depth of 3,623 m (Petit et al. 1997, 1999).

What ice cores tell us?

Ice cores can tell scientists about temperature, precipitation, atmospheric composition, volcanic activity, and even wind patterns. The thickness of each layer allows scientists to determine how much snow fell in the area during a particular year.

How far back does the Vostok ice core go?

In January 1998, the collaborative ice-drilling project between Russia, the United States, and France at the Russian Vostok station in East Antarctica yielded the deepest ice core ever recovered, reaching a depth of 3,623 m (Petit et al. 1997, 1999).

How far back can ice cores dated?

The oldest continuous ice core records extend to 130,000 years in Greenland, and 800,000 years in Antarctica. Ice cores are typically drilled by means of either a mechanical or thermal drill.

At what depth in the ice core is the Ice Age closest to 100000 years?

1430 m
At what depth in the ice core is the ice age closest to 100,000 years? You got it! The ice age is 100.38 kyr at 1430 m.

What do air bubbles in ice cores indicate?

Additionally, as the ice compacts over time, tiny bubbles of the atmosphere—including greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane—press inside the ice. These air pocket “fossils” provide samples of what the atmosphere was like when that layer of ice formed, LeGrande said.

Which year has the highest concentration of carbon dioxide?

By the time continuous observations began at Mauna Loa Volcanic Observatory in 1958, global atmospheric carbon dioxide was already 315 ppm. On May 9, 2013, the daily average carbon dioxide measured at Mauna Loa surpassed 400 ppm for the first time on record.