Columbus -- U.S. researchers say they have drilled two of the longest ice cores ever taken from the Peruvian Andes.
Ohio State University Professor Lonnie Thompson, who led the two-month summer expedition, said the ice cores were removed from a yet-to-be-named ice field 17,598 feet above sea level in an ice field across a Cordillera Blanca mountain range glacier.
One of the cores measured 643 feet, while the other totaled 620 feet.
Thompson said his team did a preliminary analysis for oxygen isotopes and dust particles from a 33-foot section of the core. He said the results confirmed the core contains an annually resolvable record of the climate conditions at the site.
