World-first ice archive to guard secrets of melting glaciers

The two ice cores taken from Europe's Alps are the first to be stored in a purpose-built snow cave on the frozen continent that one day should house an invaluable archive from across the globe. Hosted at Concordia Station at 3,200 metres (10,500 feet) altitude in the heart of Antarctica, the ice sanctuary will protect the collection in natural cold storage at minus 52C without any need for refrigeration. Ice cores shed precious light on climate conditions of millennia past, and these samples could...