Amid Melting, Ice Core Sample Drawn in International Effort to Drill to Greenland’s Bedrock

Video footage taken in Greenland at a research station located at a northern latitude of 75 degrees shows an ice core sample measuring about two meters in length and 10 centimeters in diameter being pulled out from a bore hole that has so far reached a depth of over 700 meters. Researchers from Denmark, of which Greenland is a part, and the United States, Germany, France and Japan as well as seven other countries are involved in the East Greenland Ice-core Project (EGRIP) to drill down to bedrock in the area lying under 2,500 meters of ice. The EGRIP effort is being made to obtain a record of climate changes in the past that might provide a better understanding of the world’s current period of warming. The sample drawn up on July 26 is believed to date back about 50,000 years. (Yumi Nakayama)