Mondo Knows Facts
Ice cores hold bubbles of ancient air
Falling snow seals atmosphere in layers, giving a direct record of past gases As snow accumulates on an ice sheet it compacts, and air between the grains becomes trapped in bubbles. Drilling down through the layers recovers samples that can be more than 800,000 years old. The bubbles show that carbon dioxide levels rose and fell with past ice ages. It sits in Mondo's science collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
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Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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More facts like this
Albedo measures how much sunlight bounces offFresh snow reflects most sunlight while open ocean absorbs almost all of itGreenhouse gases absorb outgoing infraredMolecular bonds soak up heat radiated by the surface and re-emit some downwardAntarctica is technically the largest desert on EarthAntarctica receives an average of less than 200 millimetres of precipitation each year along its coast and far less inland.Hailstones grow in layers inside stormsUpdrafts carry ice pellets up and down, adding a coat on each passFrost forms straight from water vapourOn cold nights vapour turns to ice without first becoming liquid waterHadley cells drive the trade windsAir rises at the equator, drops at about 30 degrees and returns along the surface
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Tags: climate, ice, atmosphere
Ice cores hold bubbles of ancient air: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Falling snow seals atmosphere in layers, giving a direct record of past gases. The figure is taken from NOAA, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a science fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Science shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.