China: In a joint operation teams from China and Nepal, completed the first full-depth ice core drilling at the summit of Mt Everest. The scientific expedition was carried out collect samples for understanding climate and environmental changes in ultra-high-altitude areas.
The mission took around 2 hours to complete the full depth ice core extraction from the summit. The team according to reports collected ice core and snow core samples across multiple altitude gradients on the way down.
The samples will be transported to laboratories under low-temperature preservation conditions for research on climate and environmental changes in the world’s highest region, cryosphere evolution, and atmospheric records at extreme altitudes, sources in the know said.
As per the Guinness world record an ice core was extracted at 8,020 metres (26,312 feet) above sea level from the South Col glacier on Mt Everest – just above the Camp IV and 828 metres below the summit in May 2019.