“The mud, which had not seen the light of day for roughly a million years, was only briefly exposed to sunlight, as white light can damage ice core material.”
EGRIP spent seven years drilling 2,670 meters through a Greenland ice stream, the first deep core ever taken from one. Ice streams are where the sheet slides toward the coast, which makes this the core that matters for sea level. The ice holds 120,000 years of climate, and it even shows heavy metals rising in the air in Roman times. The core now sits at Kangerlussuaq Airport waiting for a flight to Denmark.