Each meter-long segment contains up to 13,000 years of deep, compressed history, including bubbles of ancient air. Together, the evidence provides a baseline for our current climate crisis, and it could reveal more about past extreme climate change events that threatened human survival. "We have a strong indication that the uppermost 2,480 meters contain a climate record that goes back to 1.2 million years," says Julien Westhoff, chief scientist on the ground for the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA).