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EPICA Dome C: Greenhouse gases over eight glacial cycles

In this focus
Ice cores are invaluable archives of past environmental conditions on Earth. In 1996, the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA) set out to provide the longest ice-core climate record yet, by drilling a core from 3,270 m thick ice at a site known as Dome C in East Antarctica. The team's findings to date, including a complete Antarctic climate record over the past 800,000 years and atmospheric methane and carbon dioxide records from 650,000 years ago to the present, have significantly advanced our understanding of the Earth's climate over the past eight glacial cycles. Here Nature presents the latest results, the complete records of atmospheric methane and carbon dioxide over the past 800,000 years, along with some of the previous Dome C ice-core papers and a collection of related articles.
Image: A. Lori, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment (ENEA)
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Current Research
LETTER
High-resolution carbon dioxide concentration record 650,000—800,000 years before present free access
Lüthi, D. et al.
Nature 453, 379–382 (15 May 2008) doi:10.1038/nature06949
Abstract | Full Text | PDF | Supplementary Information
LETTER
Orbital and millennial-scale features of atmospheric CH4 over the past 800,000 years free access
Loulergue, L. et al.
Nature 453, 383–386 (15 May 2008) doi:10.1038/nature06950
Abstract | Full Text | PDF | Supplementary Information
LETTER
Dust-climate couplings over the past 800,000 years from the EPICA Dome C ice core free access
Lambert, F. et al.
Nature 452, 616–619 (3 April 2008) doi:10.1038/nature06763
Abstract | Full Text | PDF | Supplementary Information
ARTICLE
Southern Ocean sea-ice extent, productivity and iron flux over the past eight glacial cycles free access
Wolff, E. W. et al.
Nature 440, 491–496 (23 March 2006) doi:10.1038/nature04614
Abstract | Full Text | PDF | Supplementary Information
ARTICLE
Eight glacial cycles from an Antarctic ice core free access
EPICA community members
Nature 429, 623–628 (10 June 2004) doi:10.1038/nature02599
Abstract | Full Text | PDF | Supplementary Information
NEWS AND VIEWS
Palaeoclimate: Windows on the greenhouse free access
Brook, E.
Nature 453, 291–292 (15 May 2008) doi:10.1038/453291a
NEWS AND VIEWS
Palaeoclimate: A great grand-daddy of ice cores free access
McManus J.F.
Nature 429, 611–612 (10 June 2004) doi:10.1038/429611a
NEWS
Ice cores reveal climate secrets
Brumfiel G.
Nature News, (15 May 2008) doi:10.1038/news.2008.825
NEWS
Antarctic ice puts climate predictions to the test
Hopkin M.
Nature 438, 536–537 (1 December 2005) doi:10.1038/438536b
NEWS
Greenhouse-gas levels highest for 650,000 years
Hopkin M.
Nature News, (24 November 2005) doi:10.1038/news051121-14
NEWS
Palaeoclimate: Frozen time
Walker G.
Nature 429, 596–597 (10 June 2004) doi:10.1038/429596a
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Podcast

Listen Join Geoff Brumfiel as he steps into a big freezer to learn about ice core science from Eric Wolff at the British Antarctic Survey�s base in Cambridge, UK.
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