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Mont Blanc Ice Core Yields Continuous 12,000-Year Alpine Climate Record

AUVERGNE-RHÔNE-ALPES, FRANCE, JUL 16 – The ice core reveals an 8-fold increase in dust during the last Ice Age and offers a detailed climate and aerosol record spanning 12,000 years, researchers said.

  • Researchers extracted a 40-meter ice core from Mont Blanc’s Dôme du Goûter glacier, marking the first Alpine core to preserve climate data through the last Ice Age, co-author Susanne Preunkert said.
  • Building on the EPICA Dome C core extraction 20 years ago, which provided an 800,000-year climate record, Susanne Preunkert collected the Alpine core in 1999.
  • Researchers uncovered extreme aerosol spikes during glacial periods, with dust storms eight times stronger and sea salt deposition 49-fold above Holocene levels, while calcium concentrations spiked 38-fold.
  • Cores close to aerosol sources prove invaluable, according to lead author Legrand, highlighting the Alpine core’s unprecedented Mesolithic-era atmospheric chemistry record.
  • Researchers will spend months interpreting the core and aim to present their first findings towards the end of next year, while planning further analysis for human history indicators.
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Oxford University Press broke the news in Oxford, United Kingdom on Tuesday, July 15, 2025.
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