A Dartmouth grad student is on a mission to find the oldest ice on the planet and to find it — he’s joined a team of scientists at the South Pole.
Wind speeds there average 40 mph and temperatures top out below zero. That’s where Jacob Chalif is hoping to find the ancient ice he’s looking for.
“What Coldex’s mission is is to push back the ice core record in Antarctica,older than we’ve ever gotten it,” he said.
Every day, a 12-member team travels by snowmobile to a work site and drills for old ice. Air bubbles in the ice provide a glimpse into the past that can help scientists like Chalif predict future weather patterns.
“Ice cores provide an unparalleled archive of past atmospheric air,” he said. “There’s no other way to get in a time machine and get air that is a million years old.”
The larger goal, he says, is to understand the impact humans are having on the environment.
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