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One of the primary results of paleoclimate research over the past decade has been strong evidence for human-influenced (anthropogenic) global warming. Results have been based on ice cores taken from undisturbed ice sheets, such as those
in Antarctica. Ice cores provide uninterrupted information on important properties of paleoclimate, including local temperature and precipitation rate, humidity, and wind speed as well as changes in atmospheric composition. In this lab we will work with the original data from the famous
Vostok Ice Cores, which “carry the distinction of being the only ice cores that scientists are certain have remained undisturbed for the last interglacial and the penultimate glacial periods” (AGU, 1995).
Vostok is the Antarctic research base founded by the Soviet Union in 1957. Even though
the US has bragging rights to a research base at the South Pole, the (now) Russian base at Vostok is much more important scientifically. First of all it sits over one of the thickest (> 4 km) portions of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Second, this ice is relatively undisturbed (elsewhere the ice has been subject to substantial flow and/or seasonal conditions that might destroy the ice). Third, under the 4 km ice sheet at Vostok lies a lake the size of Lake Ontario that has been cut off from Earth surface conditions for perhaps 15 million years.
Subglacial Lake Vostok and Vostok Research Station on the Antarctic Continent