Scientists hope to understand the last time the West Antarctic ice sheet collapsed by studying the deep ice of the glacier formed thousands of years ago. The chemistry of ice and air bubbles trapped in ice layers can reveal past conditions. By taking samples from the depths of the ice, these "ice cores" are examined to assess the potential risk of Antarctica in current global warming.

The Hercules Dome drilling site in Antarctica has layers of ice dating back to the Aemian Epoch – the most recent period which, like today, fell between the ice ages. The Aemian was even warmer than today's climate and the oceans were higher.

Hercules Dome is hundreds of miles from the ocean, but may have been a waterfront property in warmer times 125,000 years ago, according to project leader Eric Steig, a science professor at Earth and Space at the UW. Researchers should be able to determine this from the chemistry of the ice: for example, the salt concentration may be higher if there was once open water nearby. Understanding this will help guide projections of how much and how quickly sea levels could rise due to climate change.

Gemma O'Connor is a graduate student in the UW Department of Earth and Space Sciences who was part of a team in 2019 that conducted a radar survey of the ice sheet to determine future drilling locations , planned for 2024.

Learn more about the project here: https://www.washington.edu/news/2020/12/08/hercules-dome-ice-core/

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