Scientists in Arctic Race to Preserve ‘Ice Memory’ as Glaciers Melt at a High Rate

Scientists camped in the Arctic are set to begin drilling to save samples of historic ice for evaluation earlier than the frozen layers soften away due to local weather change, mission organisers stated on Monday.

Italian, French and Norwegian researchers are in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago in what they referred to as a race in opposition to time to protect essential ice information for analysing previous environmental circumstances — planning to ship all of them the best way to the Antarctic for storage.

“Glaciers at excessive latitudes, such as these in the Arctic, have begun to soften at a excessive fee,” said paleoclimatologist Carlo Barbante, vice-chairman of the Ice Memory Foundation that is running the mission.

“We want to recover and preserve, for future generations of scientists, these extraordinary archives of our Planet’s climate before all the information they contain is completely lost.”

The eight specialists on the mission have arrange camp at an altitude of 1,100 metres on the crevasse-ridden Holtedahlfonna ice subject and plan to begin drilling on Tuesday, Ice Memory stated.

They will extract ice in a sequence of tubes from as far as 125 metres (137 yards) under the floor, containing frozen geochemical traces relationship again three centuries.

Analysis of chemical compounds in deep “ice cores” provides scientists with valuable data about past environmental conditions.

But experts warn that meltwater is leaking down and altering the geochemical records preserved in ancient ice beneath.

Ice scientists “are seeing their primary material disappear forever from the surface of the planet”, Jerome Chapellaz, president of the inspiration, informed AFP.

“It is our accountability as glaciologists of this technology to be certain a little bit of it’s preserved.”

Human-caused carbon emissions have warmed the planet by 1.1 degrees Celsius since the 19th century. Studies indicate that the Arctic is warming between two and four times faster than the global average.

– Antarctic ‘ice sanctuary’ –

One set of the ice tubes extracted will be used for immediate analysis while a second set will be sent to Antarctica for storage in an “ice memory sanctuary” underneath the snow, the place the samples will likely be preserved for future generations of scientists.

From their distant supply, the ice cores will likely be transported by sea to Europe and later to the opposite finish of the globe, for storage at a Franco-Italian Antarctic analysis station.

There, on territory protected by the Antarctic Treaty, they are going to be saved underneath the snow at minus 50C, the place no energy is required to maintain them cool.

“In coming many years, researchers may have new concepts and methods to give voice to these archives,” the researchers said in a statement.

“For instance, they may be able to isolate other information contained in the ice of which we are not aware today.”

The staff in Svalbard will work for 3 weeks in temperatures as low as minus 25C (-13 Farenheit), reducing and pulling out a sequence of cylinders of ice 10cm (4 inches) huge.

The 700,000-euro ($760,000) mission, partly funded by the Italian analysis ministry, follows a sequence of earlier ice core extractions by the inspiration, together with operations in the Alps and the Andes.

Further core-drilling missions are deliberate in the approaching years in Tajikistan and the Himalayas.

A examine revealed in the journal Science in January stated that half of the Earth’s 215,000 mountain glaciers are anticipated to disappear by the top of this century due to local weather change brought on by people — even when the goal of limiting world warming to 1.5 levels Celsius is reached.

Read all of the Latest News right here

(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed)