This frozen Antarctic vault will hold the remains of Earth’s vanishing glaciers

Stocker thinks scientists could one day learn unprecedented insights into how air moves around the planet and how water moves among the oceans, atmosphere, and land. On a hotter planet, these cycles can dramatically change. Precise measurements of the chemical signals in ice could help scientists understand how Earth’s climate systems work and could test their climate models, he explains.

The IMF has identified five additional sites for core drilling between now and 2036: the Pacific Coastal Mountains that extend from British Columbia to Alaska, the Andes in South America, Svalbard in Norway, the Subantarctic Islands, and the Hindu Kush Himalaya. With these additional samples, scientists estimate they’ll have 300,000 years of data in total.

Building a natural refrigerator

Despite racing time to collect ice cores, the project’s ambition demands glacial pace. Since 2015, the Sanctuary’s leaders have navigated complex diplomatic, logistical, and financial obstacles. One drilling project on Kilimanjaro failed when a permit could not be obtained.

Drilling ice at high altitudes is challenging and expensive—as is keeping the cylinders frozen on journeys thousands of miles across land and ocean. Fragile cores must move from mountain peaks to the southern polar region, crossing the balmy tropics along the way.

Travelling by porter, snowmobile, helicopter, vehicle, ship, and plane, the cores are cut into meter-long sections, and chilled at -4°F in sealed boxes and large refrigerated containers.