this should be interesting, especially when they'll examine it much more thoroughly......

 

http://sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=000352EA-658A-10C7-A58A83414B7F0000

How do they think this will help with predicting future climate changes when the eight ice ages they found represented in the core sample were all of differing lenghts and severities?

Good question. It could hold many clues and answers or I guess depending on how extensive their analysis of it may be.

 

Several things come to mind. Taking into account that this core goes back some 740,000 years ago and did go through the past 8 ice ages, maybe it can tell us how these things were formed or moved. What the conditions were like, ofcourse the general composition and other particles in it may be useful.

 

Also, right around the same time (+/- 50,000 years) there is evidence of man-made fire. It may even have bits and pieces of DNA, especially if they could find some mtDNA, that would be great.

I don't doubt that it will provide a wealth of data for study and will tell us many things about the time periods invilved. I just don't hold much hope that weather patterns will ever be acurately predicted using examples from the past. Too many factors effect climate and too much has changed in three quarters of a million years.

 

If it can help change world opinion on greenhouse gasses, environmental pollution and alternative energy sources, I feel that would be effort better spent.

when are they going into lake vostok??

guess i could look it up, but just raising the question