The Ice Memory vault at the Concordia Station in Antarctica.
Photographer: Rocco Ascione PNRA/IPEV
An Antarctic Ice Vault Is Becoming a Noah’s Ark for Melting Glaciers
Ice cores from the Alps to the Andes will be sealed inside a frozen Antarctic chamber, preserving the planet’s oldest environmental secrets.
Carlo Barbante’s voice carries a touch of pride as he recalls his first steps into the frozen cave nine meters beneath Antarctica’s ice. “It’s a very evocative place, and very, very cold,” he says, “which is exactly what we need.”
The chamber — designed to maintain a steady temperature of around -50C (-58F) — will be used to store ice cores extracted from glaciers around the world, preserving the chemical record of past climates trapped inside them. Known as the Ice Memory project, the collaboration between French and Italian glaciologists aims to ensure the cores will be available to scientists worldwide for centuries to come.