An Antarctic ice core containing bubbles of air from the year 1410 will take centre stage at a new gallery opening at the Science Museum, London, next month.

The bubbles record atmospheric conditions as they were 600 years ago.

Climate scientists analyse air trapped in ice cores to look for changes in greenhouse gas levels.

The London museum’s ice core was collected by a joint British and US team from the Dyer Plateau in Antarctica in 1989.

Scientists had succeeded in drilling a 1,000 metre-deep ice core and reached bedrock.

The core gives a continuous record of the climate on Berkner spanning for the past 30,000 years. This period is particularly interesting as it includes the dramatic transition from the last Ice Age into the current Holocene warm period, when the average temperature of the Antarctic rose by 8˚C.

Situated at the southern end of the Atlantic Ocean, the Berkner Island coast will give a clear view of the southern response to changes in ocean currents that are believed to have occurred during this period.