The first season of the international drilling project NEEM
(North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling) in north-western Greenland
was completed at August 20th. A research team, with the
participation of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and
Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association, has drilled an ice
core of altogether 1757.87 m length on the Greenland inland ice
within 110 days. It is expected to contain data on climate
history of about 38.000 years. The oldest ice comes from a
period when the Greenland climate was characterized by strong
temperature fluctuations: an average of 10° to 15° Celsius
within a few centuries. The drilling is to be continued in the
coming years to gain information on the last interglacial
period, the Eemian of about 120.000 to 130.000 years ago.
Research institutes from fourteen nations are participating in
the research project which is running since 2007: Denmark, the
USA, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Japan, Great Britain,
Germany, South Korea, Switzerland, China, Belgium,