European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica

The European Science Foundation EPICA Programme (1996–2005) provides co-ordination for EPICA drilling activities at Dome Concordia and Kohnen Station, which are supported by the European Commission and by national contributions from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The upper plot, with x-axis being age (years before 1950) clearly shows the extra information in the EPICA core before the start of the Vostok record.

The Nature paper argues that if this analogue is accepted, then the current climate would be expected to continue like today's, in the absence of human influence (which it states is unlikely, given the predicted increases in greenhouse gas concentrations).

[4] At the start of 2025 it was announced that after they drilled to a depth of 2800 m, they found in the uppermost 2480 m the oldest possibly unbroken ice core record to date.

[5] Beyond EPICA coordinator Carlo Barbante said carbon dioxide levels are now 50 percent higher than at any time in the past 800,000 years.

End of the EDML ice core from a depth 2775 m; consists of meltwater which has formed at the basis of the ice sheet; the core was drilled 2002-2004 through the Antarctic ice sheet in the area of Dronning Maud Land by the project EPICA
The EPICA and Vostok cores compared