What a mile-deep soil sample can teach us about climate change

Mar 22, 2021

The soil sample was forgotten for decades, but threw up some surprises once it was examined. Image: Unsplash/Andre Boysen

Andrew Christ

Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in Geology, University of Vermont

Paul Bierman

Fellow of the Gund Institute for Environment, Professor of Geology and Natural Resources, University of Vermont

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Engineers pull up a section of the 4,560-foot-long ice core at Camp Century in the 1960s. Image: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Workers build the snow tunnels at the Camp Century research base in 1960. Image: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Geomorphologist Paul Bierman (right) and geochemist Joerg Schaefer of Columbia University examine the jars holding Camp Century sediment for the first time. Image: Paul Bierman

Glacial geomorphologist Andrew Christ (right), with geology student Landon Williamson, holds up the first fossil twig spotted as they washed a sediment sample from Camp Century.

Image: Paul Bierman

Maps of Greenland show the speed of the ice sheet as it flows (left) and the landscape hidden beneath it (right). Image: BedMachine v3; Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S)

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today is well beyond past levels determined from ice cores. On March 14, 2021, the CO2 level was about 417 ppm. Image: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Image: Paul Bierman

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