TIME CAPSULES

Glaciers are a useful tool used by scientists to study Earth’s past, present and future. As they form, ice layers trap bubbles of air that contain a whole host of information about what Earth’s atmosphere would have been like at that time. Paleoclimatologists can drill thousands of metres into the ice and collect tubular ice samples called ice cores. The cores are then subjected to several physical and chemical tests to create a timeline of environmental changes as you move up through the layers in the ice core. The data collected from these samples can include concentrations of greenhouse gases, levels of precipitation, volcanic activity and even wind patterns – all from thousands of years ago.

core A scientist studying an ice that has layers of volcanic ash trapped within it