Oldest piece of ice to tell about life on Earth 1.5 million years ago

A group of American researchers will spend the next seven weeks near the South Pole, looking for the oldest piece of ice which scientists believe will shed light on how our planet “lived” about 1.5 million years ago, reports CBS News.

Today, about 800,000-year-old ice is at the disposal of researchers, but scientists believe that much older samples can be found under the Antarctic ice, Focus reports. The aforesaid team hopes to collect samples from around 1.5 million years ago, which they believe will enable them to recreate the conditions on Earth up to 1.5 million years before modern times.

With the oldest sample of an 800,000-year-old ice core to date, scientists have been able to reconstruct the history of how the amount of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere has changed over time. The respective data show that carbon dioxide levels rose sharply after the Industrial Revolution and then continued to rise every year, warming the planet even more.

Scientists are now focusing on finding an even older piece of ice that will enable them to trace the history of Earth.