What is the difference between Greenland and Antarctic ice cores?
Although the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are both comparable in depth – about 3 kilometers in Greenland and up to 4 in Antarctica – the centre of Antarctica is a desert where it snows about 2cm a year, whereas in Greenland, precipitation is about ten times greater, or on average, 20 centimeters a year. This means that in Greenland, segments of ice core corresponding to one year will be much thicker and with a higher resolution, but that the entire core will not go as far back in time as in Antarctica. It’s a question of dynamics with Greenland being much more active due to its warmer climate, higher level of precipitation, and faster process of accumulation and outflow. We estimate that on average, Greenland ice is 40 000 years old, whereas for Antarctica, the figure is 120 000 years. When were the first ice cores extracted? The extraction of ice cores in Antarctica and Greenland goes back to the 1960s. In those days they didn’t go very far back in time and the data obtained
