No, the area where the ice was recovered is near the Allan Hills of the Transantarctic Mountains. This area isn't in the center of the ice sheet, where consistent accumulation patterns exist and drilling from the surface to the deepest ice would yield ~500k of these annual layers. The Allan Hills are on the fringe of the ice sheet, where the rock beneath the ice rises and due to some of the dynamic deformation mechanisms (and strong surface ablation) old ice is forced towards the surface. The researchers therefore aren't drilling from modern ice to this ancient ice, but are instead tapping directly into the old ice which is now exposed near the ice sheet surface.
