16 Dec 2012

Australia to lead ice drill project

9:40 am on 16 December 2012

Australia will lead a new drilling project in east Antarctica next summer to obtain a ice core that is 2000 years old.

The Aurora Basin North project will drill a 40-metre deep ice core 600km inland from Casey station.

Environment Minister Tony Burke who returned from Antarctica on Saturday said the project will allow researchers to gain access to a detailed record yet of past climate in the region.

Mr Burke said the project was critically important to understanding how the climate had naturally varied in the past and it would help predict future responses to global climate change.

"Ice cores provide the written history of our atmosphere and our water," he said.

"Seeking ice cores from this new area where there is much higher snow fall than other inland sites provides a massive increase in the level of detail which lives within the ice."

AAP reports Aurora Basin has sufficient snowfall - 11cm of ice per year - to provide a record of year-to-year changes over the past 2000 years on the continent.

"(The project) involves groundwork like the Aurora Basin drilling, airborne surveys and computer modelling of the ice," said Mr Burke.

"It is expected that this will lead to actual drilling for a one million year old core by various international consortia in the coming years."

AAP reports the project will involve about 20 scientists from Australia, Denmark, the United States and France.