What Ice Cores can Tell us About Earth’s Past
The glacial regions of Earth are extremely cold, and snow can accumulate in these regions over tens of thousands of years. Every new snowfall increases the pressure on the snow beneath it, eventually causing it to turn to ice, creating many ice layers. These ice layers contain information about Eart...
Published in: | Frontiers for Young Minds |
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Main Authors: | , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
Frontiers Media SA
2022
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frym.2022.712036 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frym.2022.712036/full |
Summary: | The glacial regions of Earth are extremely cold, and snow can accumulate in these regions over tens of thousands of years. Every new snowfall increases the pressure on the snow beneath it, eventually causing it to turn to ice, creating many ice layers. These ice layers contain information about Earth’s past at the time when the snow fell. By collecting these ice layers in long cylinders called ice cores, we can examine these layers to see how the Earth’s climate has changed over many years and the effects that Earth processes and human activity have had on our planet. Ice cores are unique because much of the information we learn from them cannot be found anywhere else. By complementing ice core information with other information like satellite and weather data and human knowledge and experience, we can learn even more about Earth’s past. |
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