Lonnie Thompson

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Tibet's Guliya ice cap dated to 128,000 years

Co-author on the new Guliya chronology study

A 309-meter ice core pulled from the Guliya ice cap in western Tibet in 1992 and a 310-meter core drilled nearby in 2015 preserve nearly identical oxygen-isotope patterns. That match, plus radioactive clockwork in the ice itself, is what a new study uses to argue the record reaches back 128,000 years — the oldest ice core known outside the polar regions.

Updated Nov 1

Notable Quotes

"If we only had Holocene-era ice in Tibet, that would mean that the big ice sheets from the last ice age didn't persist through the early Holocene. But evidence shows that it did."

from Tibet's Guliya ice cap dated to 128,000 years · Updated Nov 1

"When did ice start forming on the planet and what did those natural processes of loss look like?"

from Tibet's Guliya ice cap dated to 128,000 years · Updated Nov 1