A scientific record at risk

Abstract

Ice cores—cylindrical samples drilled from glaciers—have played a central role in helping chart the past climate of Earth and have even helped trace human history and present-day pollution. But climate change puts these precious records at risk: many of the world’s glaciers and ice sheets are melting at an accelerating rate. While chemists continue to develop more sensitive methods to read the chemical messages in the ice, glaciologists are now rushing to study and store ice cores from vulnerable formations. Their goal is to protect this unique source of data about Earth’s natural history for future scientists. Climatologist Lonnie Thompson’s voice is still full of wonder when he talks about seeing the Quelccaya Ice Cap for the first time. “It was so beautiful, like looking at layers on a cake,” he says of looking up at an icy cliffside in 1974. Like many mountain glaciers, Quelccaya comprises stacked layers, each