Scientists unveiled the world’s first repository of mountain ice cores, housing a historical record of the Earth’s atmosphere in an Antarctic facility amidst concerns of global warming’s impact on glaciers. Ice cores act as time capsules, encapsulating past atmospheric conditions in a frozen archive. With the accelerated melting of glaciers worldwide, experts are rushing to safeguard these ice cores for future analysis.
The initial two samples of Alpine mountain ice cores, extracted from Mont Blanc in France and Grand Combin in Switzerland, are currently stored in a snow cave at the Concordia research station on the Antarctic Plateau, maintained at a consistent temperature of approximately -52°C. The Ice Memory Foundation, comprising European research institutions, officially established the frozen sanctuary following the arrival of 1.7 tonnes of ice via a 50-day refrigerated voyage from Trieste, Italy.
Carlo Barbante, vice chair of the Ice Memory Foundation and a professor at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, emphasized the importance of preserving physical samples of atmospheric components trapped in ice layers for future researchers. The Ice Memory initiative, initiated in 2015 by a collaborative effort of research bodies from France, Italy, and Switzerland, aims to secure ice cores from 10 glacier sites globally and transfer them to the sanctuary for safekeeping in the approaching years. The long-term goal is to develop an international agreement to protect these samples for future investigations.
As global temperatures continue to rise, glaciers are rapidly disappearing, leading to the loss of crucial atmospheric data. Celeste Saulo, the secretary general of the UN World Meteorological Organization, highlighted the significance of these ice cores as essential references enabling current and future scientists to comprehend the scale, rate, and reasons behind environmental changes.