3-Million-Year-Old Soil Found Under Greenland Ice Sheet
- 10 years ago
A team of researchers in Greenland, including one scientist from NASA, has discovered 3-million-year-old tundra soil that was buried under two miles of ice.
A team of researchers, including one scientist from NASA, has discovered 3-million-year-old tundra soil that was buried under two miles of ice in Greenland.
Previous research indicated that the Greenland Ice Sheet may have melted in the past, but the latest data shows that it has probably been frozen for much longer, preserving the landscape underneath for millions of years.
According to Dylan Rood, co-author of the new study, from the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre and the University of California, Santa Barbara: “Greenland really was green! However, it was millions of years ago. Before it was covered by the second largest body of ice on Earth, Greenland looked like the green Alaskan tundra."
The study is based on the analysis of ancient soil that was drilled from the bedrock beneath the area of the Greenland Ice Sheet called Summit back in the year 1993.
Scientists examined the ice core that is more than ten-thousand-feet-long, holding around 100 thousand years of information about climate fluctuations.
It contains what turned out to be the oldest soil ever found, except for parts of Africa and Australia that were never affected by the erosion from ice age climate activity.
A team of researchers, including one scientist from NASA, has discovered 3-million-year-old tundra soil that was buried under two miles of ice in Greenland.
Previous research indicated that the Greenland Ice Sheet may have melted in the past, but the latest data shows that it has probably been frozen for much longer, preserving the landscape underneath for millions of years.
According to Dylan Rood, co-author of the new study, from the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre and the University of California, Santa Barbara: “Greenland really was green! However, it was millions of years ago. Before it was covered by the second largest body of ice on Earth, Greenland looked like the green Alaskan tundra."
The study is based on the analysis of ancient soil that was drilled from the bedrock beneath the area of the Greenland Ice Sheet called Summit back in the year 1993.
Scientists examined the ice core that is more than ten-thousand-feet-long, holding around 100 thousand years of information about climate fluctuations.
It contains what turned out to be the oldest soil ever found, except for parts of Africa and Australia that were never affected by the erosion from ice age climate activity.