A team of German researchers conducted the first comprehensive scientific survey of the glacier on the summit of Mount Ararat in eastern Türkiye.
The expedition worked last July at an altitude of over 5,000 meters above sea level, in harsh conditions characterized by extreme cold, strong winds, and thin air, where oxygen levels were less than half normal. For two weeks, scientists studied an ice field that had remained a "white spot" in scientific research, their main objective being to determine whether the glacier on Turkey's highest peak holds a unique record of climate and the history of human activity.
Using radar and seismic survey techniques, the team was able to create a map of the ice thickness and determine the optimal drilling location, in preparation for extracting the first ice core in the history of Mount Ararat.
Ice is like a multi-layered natural archive, potentially preserving bubbles of ancient atmospheric gases, dust particles, traces of volcanic eruptions, and possibly remnants of metals from ancient smelting furnaces, as well as ash dating back to the beginnings of agriculture. According to Dr. Achim Lichtenberger of the University of Münster, these samples represent a new and important source of data for archaeology.
Mount Ararat is located at the crossroads of the civilizations of Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and the Caucasus, but the glacier that covers it is melting due to global warming, threatening to lose this unique natural archive forever.
The glacier's importance extends beyond preserving cultural imprints; it also holds invaluable data for glaciology, including samples of the ancient atmosphere, dust particles, and traces of past volcanic eruptions. This data will help scientists accurately reconstruct the region's climate history, including periods such as the Roman Optimal Climate and the Late Little Ice Age.
