Scientists Have Found Some Truly Ancient Ice, But Now They Want Ice That’s Even Older

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Exposing the Big Game's avatarThe Extinction Chronicles

    December 26, 20208:03 AM ETHeard onWeekend Edition Saturday

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    Inside of the Blue Ice Drill tent, drillers Tanner Kuhl (left) and Elizabeth Morton (right) work with graduate students Austin Carter, Jacob Morgan and postdoctoral fellow Sarah Shackleton in Antarctica in 2019.John Higgins

    The oldest ice on Earth probably is hiding somewhere in Antarctica, because this frozen continent holds ice that’s hundreds of thousands and even millions of years old. Scientists are hoping to find it.

    But even the scientists hunting for old ice aren’t sure how long the very oldest ice might have stuck around, saysJohn Higgins, a geochemist at Princeton University.

    “Would I be surprised at this point if we had 5-million-year-old ice?” asks Higgins. “I mean, I’d be surprised, but not it’s not unfathomable.”

    One group has alreadyclaimedto have found 8-million-year-old ice in…

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