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Interpreting Ice Core Data


Information from ice cores helps scientists understand how earth's climate has varied over time. The Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 (GISP2) drilled an ice core from the summit of the Greenland ice sheet all the way down to bedrock. A total of 10,116 feet (3,053 m) of ice was retrieved, taking four years to complete! This ice core records the past 110,000 years of earth's climate history and provides one of the most detailed records for the northern hemisphere.
The ice core was sampled for 42 different measurements that tell us something about the earth's temperature, solar radiation, sea level, and the chemicals in the atmosphere over time. We have taken some of the data for the past 40,000 years and presented them in graphs for you to interpret just as the scientists did.