Drill cores as climate archives

Scientific drilling is used to gain knowledge about environmental and climatic conditions and their changes in the Earth's history. Due to the special conditions, sediments at the bottom of lakes represent a kind of climate archive. They are particularly suitable for reconstructing and analyzing the past. On this basis, predictions for the future are made through modeling.

The diagram shows the principle of drilling into lake sediments. The drilling platform on the lake makes it possible to drill into the sediment layers from the middle of the lake.

What is researched on the drill core? 

In the laboratory, sediments are examined for 'proxies' – indirect indicators of climate that provide information about changes in climatic conditions throughout Earth's history. The geophysical properties of the sediments (e.g. density) are also determined, as is evidence of life in the deep biosphere.

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