Researchers Identified Ice Older Than 128,000 Years
The Guliya Plateau ice cap contains a climate record extending back significantly further than the Holocene.
Updated on Oct. 6, 2026 in Geography
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Researchers have confirmed that ice layers within the Guliya Plateau on the Tibetan Plateau exceed 128,000 years in age. This finding establishes a deep-time climate record that predates the 12,000-year-old Holocene epoch.
Why it matters
Extending the glacial timeline allows scientists to better reconstruct historical climate processes beyond current Holocene-era data. This record provides a critical benchmark for modeling how planetary glaciations shift over long-term cycles.
The Guliya ice core samples surpass 128,000 years in age, significantly exceeding the 30,000-year timeline established by previous ice core collections from the Peruvian Andes.
The players
Guliya Plateau
A high-altitude region in Tibet serving as a critical site for gathering deep-time paleoclimate data.
Huascarán
A mountain site in the Peruvian Andes known for its 30,000-year-old ice core record.
The details
To determine the age of these layers, researchers utilized radioactive isotopes of beryllium and chlorine, which are atoms that decay at known rates to act as a geological clock. By comparing oxygen isotope records from the ice cores with those found in cave deposits, the team cross-referenced environmental changes against the Leschamp Geomagnetic Excursion—a temporary reversal of Earth's magnetic field that occurred more than 41,000 years ago. This dual-method approach allows for precise dating of ice that formed long before the Holocene.
Timeline
128,000 years ago: Date of the oldest identified ice on Guliya Plateau.
41,000 years ago: Occurrence of the Leschamp Geomagnetic Excursion.
12,000 years ago: Beginning of the Holocene geological epoch.
1992: Date of initial ice core collection on Guliya Plateau.
2015: Date of secondary ice core collection on Guliya Plateau.
The Tech Race
This finding significantly extends the scope of the Guliya ice cap research initiative, which has been active since 1992. It moves the frontier of glacial study past the benchmarks previously set by mountain-based ice core research.
This research provides climate scientists and modelers with a more granular historical baseline for long-term planetary warming and cooling cycles. While this work does not directly impact consumer technology, it improves the accuracy of the global climate models that shape future environmental policy.
The takeaway
This discovery validates that deep-time climate archives remain preserved in high-altitude ice, offering a window into environments before the Holocene. Researchers are now looking toward the analysis of additional samples to confirm the total span of the Guliya record.
What happens next
The research team plans to analyze additional ice core samples collected from the Guliya ice cap to further refine the timeline.
Further reading
For more on how geographical climate records are analyzed, visit the Geography section.
More information
Read the complete findings in the Science Advances research article.
Source note: This article includes information reported by SciTechDaily.
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