Sending Ice To Antarctica For Future Generations

27 May 2015

 - Only a tiny amount of mountain glacial ice has ever been collected and studied, and in 2016 the Col du Dome will become the first contributor to an Antarctic ice vault.

The archive will be housed in a snow cave at the Concordia Research Station – a permanently manned base, jointly operated by scientists from France and Italy.

Stored safely in a giant frozen trench, the ice cores can simply be sealed in bags 10m below the surface where the temperature maintains a steady temperature of -50C.

“We know even with global warming, even if Antarctica warms up by a few degrees we still have access to the best freezer on the planet. We know the ice will be safe there for decades or centuries,” says Chappellaz.