Scientists have launched the world’s first global repository of mountain ice cores in Antarctica to safeguard the Earth’s atmospheric history as glaciers melt due to global warming. Ice cores act as frozen time capsules, preserving past atmospheric conditions. With glaciers rapidly melting worldwide, the urgency to preserve these ice cores for future research is paramount.
The initial two samples of Alpine mountain ice core, extracted from Mont Blanc in France and Grand Combin in Switzerland, are now housed in a snow cave at the Concordia research station on the Antarctic Plateau, maintained at a steady -52°C temperature. The Ice Memory Foundation, a collaboration of European research institutions, officially opened the frozen sanctuary after the arrival of 1.7 tonnes of ice transported from Trieste, Italy, via a 50-day refrigerated journey on an icebreaker.
Carlo Barbante, vice chair of the Ice Memory Foundation and a professor at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, emphasized the importance of safeguarding these ice cores, which contain valuable information on atmospheric gases, aerosols, pollutants, and dust trapped in ice layers. The Ice Memory project, initiated in 2015 by a consortium of research institutes from France, Italy, and Switzerland, aims to collect ice cores from 10 glacier sites globally and store them in the cave sanctuary for future study.
As temperatures rise and glaciers vanish rapidly, crucial data about the atmosphere is at risk. Glaciers have lost between two per cent and 39 per cent of their ice regionally since 2000, and about five per cent globally. These ice cores serve as essential reference points for scientists to comprehend past changes in the atmosphere and the reasons behind them, according to Celeste Saulo, secretary general of the UN World Meteorological Organization.