An international team of scientists has announced that they have successfully recovered a 1,2 million-year-old Antarctic ice core. Scientists dug up to 2,8 kilometers of earth to get to the core, and as he reports "AP", analysis of this ice will show how Earth's atmosphere and climate evolved, as well as provide insight into how ice age cycles changed.

Italian project coordinator Carlo Barbante said that thanks to the ice core, scientists will understand what has changed in terms of greenhouse gases, chemicals and dust in the atmosphere.

The same team previously drilled a core about 800.000 years old, and workers drilled every summer for four years in average temperatures of about minus 35 degrees.

Italian researcher Federico Scotto, who was among the technicians who completed drilling at a site called "Little Dome C" near the Concordia research station, said the moment they reached the core was a great moment for the whole team.

The European Union funded the European Antarctic Ice Mining Project (Beyond EPICA) with support from nations across the continent, with Italy as project coordinator.

Penn State climatologist Richard Alley, who recently won the National Medal of Science for his study of ice sheets, said advances in ice core studies are important because they help scientists better understand climate conditions throughout history.