Preserve the ice memory for future generations

Since the 1970’s, scientists have been carrying ice core drilling operations for their own research. As part of Ice Memory, six expeditions have been undertaken in an effort to collect heritage ice cores to be stored in Antarctica. Once it is completely driven in – and thus filled with ice – glaciologists extract the tube containing an ice cylinder of approximately 1.0 meter long and 10 cm. of diameter, known as ice core. Each core is placed in a protective cover which is numbered and qualified in terms of its place of extraction, the upper and lower end is identified as well as the depth from which it was extracted and subsequently carefully stored in isothermal storage boxes until being transported in a refrigerated container. The cold chain that needs to be set up from the drilling site all the way to the storage is particularly sensitive and represents a crucial element in such an ice core drilling operation.