ice core project

ice cores

Introduction
Ice Cores are a palioclimatologists record of the past, they are made up of snow compacted over years. Ice Cores are time lines of the chemical composition of snow hundreds of years back (Riebeck). ice cores allow researchers to create a record of greenhouse gasses, and climate change for over one hundred thousand years into the past (Wais Divide).

Creation of ice cores
Ice core themselves are samples of snow that has been compacted into ice, Ice Core samples are blue due to the compacting that has occurred (Riebeck). the layers of compressed snow show annual bands that differentiate between winter and summer, the layers are chemically and texturally different (Riebeck). the difference between winter and suimmer snow is that the summer snow in antarctica has the sun shining on it 24 hours a day. In winter it is dark 24 hours a day (Riebeck). the textures are different because the sun causes the snow to melt together slightly more than winter snow (Riebeck).

anatomy of an Ice Core sample
ice core samples can be up to 2 miles long depending on sample size. near the top is the youngest snow called firn, this is about 53 meters deep into the sample (Riebeck). deeper snow is compacted further, its about 1,800 meters deep. the bottom of the core is about 3,000 meters deep, its filled with sand, silt and rock that discolor the ice (Riebeck).

History
in order unlock the secrets locked within the ice scientists began to drill in the ice in the 1960's. the grisp2 project started in the 1960's and didn't end until the early 1990's (Riebeck). took a core sample that was 2 miles long and held a record for the past 110,000 years, other ice core samples have brought back information that goes back 750,000 years (Riebeck). ice core usually come from the polar ice caps, but some have come from mountain regions. regions such as Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, the Andes Mountains in Peru, and the Himalayas in Asia (Riebeck).



works cited

West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide (WAIS Divide) Ice Core http://www.waisdivide.unh.edu/

Riebeek, Holli design by Robert Simmon December 19, 2005 "Paleoclimatology Frozen in Time: the Ice Core Record" http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Paleoclimatology_IceCores/

"Ice Cores That Tell the Past" http://www.gisp2.sr.unh.edu/MoreInfo/Ice_Cores_Past.html

America's investment in the future Science on the edge: arctic and antarctic discoveries "Ice

Cores Hold Earth's Climate" http://www.nsf.gov/about/history/nsf0050/arctic/climate.htm