CORE BLIMEY! THAT’S OLD ICE

AUSSIE explorers will dig up one-million-year-old ice as part of one of the “most ambitious” Antarctic expedition in human history.

A state-of-the-art drill, designed and built in Kingston, will burrow 2800m to uncover the oldest ice seen by human eyes.

Australian Antarctic Division chief scientist Nicole Webster said the ancient ice held the key to unlocking some of the most “long standing

mysteries” of climate science.

“Layers in the ice core are like pages in a diary: there’s tiny air bubbles trapped in the ice core that contain atmosphere that contains a window into that point of history a million years ago,” Professor Webster said.

“This information will not only provide data on how climate appeared in the past, it will also enable us to understand and predict how climate might function into the future.“

They will be drilling into an ice core that is about 1.2

million years old – significantly older than the previous record, which was a 800,000-year-old ice core.

A team of about 500 expeditioners will make their way to Little Dome C, one of the coldest and most inhospitable places on Earth.

Australia’s new RSV Nuyina icebreaker ship will be passing under the Tasman Bridge and docking in Hobart port in preparation for its epic southbound voyage.

Australian Antarctic Division director Kim Ellis said the grand voyage was 10 years in the making.