Ice Memory is an international initiative which aims to constitute the first world library of archived glacier ice, to preserve this invaluable scientific heritage for the generations to come, when future techniques can obtain even more data from these samples. [1]
In 2015, the Ice Memory project started with the meeting of Jérôme Chappellaz - CNRS - EPFL, Patrick Ginot - IRD (IGE/UGA-CNRS-IRD-G-INP) from France and Carlo Barbante (CNR/Ca’Foscari Univ. of Venice) from Italy to conduct drilling expeditions worldwide and safeguard the data present in the ice [2] - the memory of the ice - in an sanctuary in Antarctica.
According to UNESCO and IUCN report "World Heritage glaciers: sentinels of climate change" [3] announcing that about 30% of glaciers recognized as World Heritage Sites will disappear by 2050 and 50% by 2100 without a drastic and immediate reduction in greenhouse gases, the Ice Memory initiative has been described as urgent and meaningful for humanity wellbeing and acknowledged by UNESCO in 2017 [4]
Indeed, previous glaciology researches made by notably Claude Lorius, Glaciologist and Ice Memory first supporter, Dominique Raynaud and Jean Jouzel aimed to prove the link between atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases and climate change while studying ice cores.
In the coming decades, it is expected that researchers will have new ideas and techniques to develop those scientific results. For instance, they may be able to isolate other information contained in the ice of which we are not aware today.
This scientific information trapped in the ice — synthesised and highlighted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — is a useful element in the crucial decisions of how to shape international environmental and climate policy.
Since its beginnings in 2015, the Ice Memory project conducted nine drilling expeditions in France, Italy, Switzerland, Bolivia, Russia and Norway (Svalbard).
By trapping the different components of the atmosphere, ice represents an invaluable source of information for tracing our environmental past, for providing an account of past climate change, and especially for understanding our future.
Variations in temperature, atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, natural aerosol emissions, pollutants produced by humans.
The science of ice cores can study the dozens of chemical compounds that are trapped in the ice: gases, acids, heavy metals, radioactivity, and water isotopes form the memory of the climates and environments of the past.
The objective of Ice Memory Foundation is to sample 20 glaciers in 20 years so that future generations of scientists will have access to undamaged high-quality ice cores to pursue their research and have data to understand the Earth's climate.
As of 2025, the Ice Memory Foundation would be storing glacier samples from Europe, Bolivia, and Eurasia Russia in Europe, while waiting for Antarctic storage to become available.
Co-founder of the Ice Memory Foundation, Jérome Chappellaz says that teams will collect ice from other sites, including Rocky mountains (Canada/ USA), Himalaya plateau (Tadjikistan, Pakistan, China), Andes plateau (Peru, Argentina), Heard island (Australia), as soon as possible, facing the accelerating rate of melting. [9]
The Ice Memory heritage ice cores will be safeguarded for centuries in Antarctica. A dedicated sanctuary will be built at the French-Italian Concordia station, an international station on the Antarctic Plateau that allows natural storage at -50 °C.
First tests of the cave have been jointly managed by IPEV and PNRA. The first cave should be available for the first Ice Memory cores in 2025. Located close to the Concordia Station, the storage site will cover a surface area equivalent to approximately twenty 20-foot containers, or approximately 300 m2.
Despite the added complexity of transporting the ice cores to Antarctica, this choice will allow a long-term preservation of the samples using natural storage with no energy consumption required for refrigeration thereby protecting the precious samples from any risk of disrupted cold chain (technical problems, economic crisis, conflict, acts of terrorism, etc.).
Difficult access to the samples, combined with restrictive Antarctic logistics will prevent an over-use of the cores. At last, the storage in a polar region managed via the Antarctic Treaty, prevents territorial claims as they are frozen, as signed by the world's major nations.
The Ice Memory Foundation was officially created by seven major French, Italian, and Swiss scientific institutions in 2021: the CNRS, the IRD, University Grenoble Alpes, and the French Polar Institute (IPEV) in France; the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice in Italy; and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland and is sheltered by University Grenoble Alpes Foundation.
Located in France at Université Grenoble Alpes, it aims to collect, save and manage ice cores from selected glaciers in the world currently melting, with their yielded information for decades and centuries to come.
The Foundation is directed by Anne Catherine Olhmann since 2015.
The Honorary President of the Ice Memory Foundation is His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco.
The Foundation's governance is international, with members from France, Italy, Switzerland, China, and the United States, including two former Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Vice Presidents, Qin Dahe and Jean Jouzel.
A long term governance over the next centuries, ensuring the preservation and the proper use of this Humanity heritage, is investigated in cooperation with International Institutions, notably UNESCO and Antarctic Treaty System (ATCM).
In 2023 at One Planet Polar Summit in Paris, [10] the Ice Memory Law and Governance Chair was launched to establish proposals for filling existing legal gaps and to propose a legal framework for the development of the Ice Memory heritage.
Lake Vostok is the largest of Antarctica's 675 known subglacial lakes. Lake Vostok is located at the southern Pole of Cold, beneath Russia's Vostok Station under the surface of the central East Antarctic Ice Sheet, which is at 3,488 m (11,444 ft) above mean sea level. The surface of this fresh water lake is approximately 4,000 m (13,100 ft) under the surface of the ice, which places it at approximately 500 m (1,600 ft) below sea level.
An ice core is a core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet or a high mountain glacier. Since the ice forms from the incremental buildup of annual layers of snow, lower layers are older than upper ones, and an ice core contains ice formed over a range of years. Cores are drilled with hand augers or powered drills; they can reach depths of over two miles (3.2 km), and contain ice up to 800,000 years old.
Claude Lorius was a French glaciologist. He was director emeritus of research at CNRS. He was the director of the Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement in Grenoble from 1983 to 1988.
Dome C, also known as Dome Circe, Dome Charlie or Dome Concordia, located at Antarctica at an elevation of 3,233 metres (10,607 ft) above sea level, is one of several summits or "domes" of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Dome C is located on the Antarctic Plateau, 1,100 kilometres (680 mi) inland from the French research station at Dumont D'Urville, 1,100 kilometres (680 mi) inland from the Australian Casey Station and 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) inland from the Italian Zucchelli station at Terra Nova Bay. Russia's Vostok Station is 560 kilometres (350 mi) away. Dome C is the site of the Concordia Research Station, jointly operated by France and Italy.
The Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center (BPCRC) is a polar, alpine, and climate research center at Ohio State University founded in 1960.
Concordia Research Station, which opened in 2005, is a French–Italian research facility that was built 3,233 m (10,607 ft) above sea level at a location called Dome C on the Antarctic Plateau, Antarctica. It is located 1,100 km (680 mi) inland from the French research station at Dumont D'Urville, 1,100 km (680 mi) inland from Australia's Casey Station and 1,200 km (750 mi) inland from the Italian Zucchelli Station at Terra Nova Bay. Russia's Vostok Station is 560 km (350 mi) away. The Geographic South Pole is 1,670 km (1,040 mi) away. The facility is also located within Australia's claim on Antarctica, the Australian Antarctic Territory.
A polar ice cap or polar cap is a high-latitude region of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite that is covered in ice.
The global temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time. There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation, particularly during the current Holocene epoch. Some temperature information is available through geologic evidence, going back millions of years. More recently, information from ice cores covers the period from 800,000 years before the present time until now. A study of the paleoclimate covers the time period from 12,000 years ago to the present. Tree rings and measurements from ice cores can give evidence about the global temperature from 1,000-2,000 years before the present until now. The most detailed information exists since 1850, when methodical thermometer-based records began. Modifications on the Stevenson-type screen were made for uniform instrument measurements around 1880.
The Greenland Ice Core Project (GRIP) was a research project organized through the European Science Foundation (ESF). The project ran from 1989 to 1995, with drilling seasons from 1990 to 1992. In 1988, the project was accepted as an ESF-associated program, and the fieldwork was started in Greenland in the summer of 1989.
Lonnie Thompson, is an American paleoclimatologist and university professor in the School of Earth Sciences at Ohio State University. He has achieved global recognition for his drilling and analysis of ice cores from ice caps and mountain glaciers in the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. He and his wife, Ellen Mosley-Thompson, run the ice core paleoclimatology research group at the Byrd Polar Research Center.
Jean-Robert Petit studied chemistry and physics at the University of Grenoble and received a PhD in 1984 in paleoclimatology on the study of the aeolian dust record from Antarctic ice cores.
The subantarctic zone is a region in the Southern Hemisphere, located immediately north of the Antarctic region. This translates roughly to a latitude of between 46° and 60° south of the Equator. The subantarctic region includes many islands in the southern parts of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans, especially those situated north of the Antarctic Convergence. Subantarctic glaciers are, by definition, located on islands within the subantarctic region. All glaciers located on the continent of Antarctica are by definition considered to be Antarctic glaciers.
The National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility (NSF-ICF), known as the National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL) before 2018, is the primary repository for ice cores collected by the United States. The facility is located at the Denver Federal Center in Lakewood, Colorado, and is managed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Funding for the facility comes from the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs, while scientific research is managed by the University of New Hampshire. NSF-ICF currently houses ~22,000 m of ice cores collected from Greenland and Antarctica, including the GISP2, Siple Dome, and portions of the Vostok cores. It is the lead facility for management of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide ice core.
The International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE) was created in 1990 with the purpose of studying climate change through research conducted in Antarctica. Antarctica was chosen as the optimal site to study the atmosphere because of its remote location and relatively undisturbed environment. Research in many fields has been conducted in Antarctica through ITASE, including astronomy, atmospheric sciences, biology, earth sciences, environmental science, geology, glaciology, marine biology, oceanography, and geophysics.
There are hundreds of antarctic lakes in Antarctica. In 2018 researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research published a study they claimed cast doubt on the earlier estimate that there were almost 400 subglacial antarctic lakes. Antarctica also has some relatively small regions that are clear of ice and snow, and there are some surface lakes in these regions. They called for on the ground seismic studies, or drilling, to determine a more reliable number.
Students on Ice Foundation is a Canadian charitable organisation that leads educational expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic for international high school and university students. Its mandate is to provide youth, educators and scientists from around the world with learning and teaching opportunities in the polar regions, with the goal of fostering an understanding of, and commitment to building a more sustainable future.
Ellen Mosley-Thompson is a glaciologist and climatologist. She is a Distinguished University Professor at Ohio State University and director of their Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center. She is known as a pioneer in the use of ice cores from the Polar Regions for paleoclimatic research and is an influential figure in climate science. She is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union and an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Julie Michelle Palais is an American polar glaciologist who has made significant contributions to climate change research studying volcanic fallout in ice cores from both Greenland and Antarctica. For many years, starting in 1990, she played a pivotal role working at the National Science Foundation (NSF) as Program Director of the Antarctic Glaciology Program in the Division of Polar Programs, including many trips to both North and South Polar regions. Both the Palais Glacier and Palais Bluff in Antarctica were named in her honor and she has received many further recognitions for her distinguished career.
Jérôme Chappellaz is a French glaciologist, geochemist and paleoclimatologist who is director of the French Polar Institute. A senior researcher at France's National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), he is a co-founder and chairman of the Ice Memory Foundation.
Françoise Vimeux is a French climatologist. She is Director of Scientific Research at the Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD), works at the Laboratoire des sciences du climat et de l'environnement (LSCE) and at the Laboratoire HydroSciences Montpellier (HSM).