Scientists in Arctic race to preserve 'ice memory'

Scientists camped in the Arctic are set to start drilling to save samples of ancient ice for analysis before the frozen layers melt away due to climate change, mission organisers said on Monday. Italian, French and Norwegian researchers are in Norway's Svalbard archipelago in what they called a race against time to preserve crucial ice records for analysing past environmental conditions -- planning to ship them all the way to the Antarctic for storage. 'Glaciers at high latitudes, such as those in the Arctic, have begun to melt at a high rate,' said paleoclimatologist Carlo Barbante, vice-chairman of the Ice Memory Foundation that is running the mission. 'We want to recover and preserve, for future generations of scientists, these extraordinary archives of our Planet's climate before all the information they contain is completely lost.' The eight specialists on the mission have set up camp at an altitude of 1,100 metres on the crevasse-ridden Holtedahlfonna ice field and plan to start drilling on Tuesday, Ice Memory said. They will extract ice in a series of tubes from as far as 125 metres (137 yards) below the surface, containing frozen geochemical traces dating back three centuries. Analysis of chemicals in deep 'ice cores' provides scientists with valuable data about past environmental conditions. But experts warn that meltwater is leaking down and altering the geochemical records preserved in ancient ice beneath. Ice scientists 'are seeing their primary material disappear forever from the surface of the planet', Jerome Chapellaz, president of the foundation, told AFP. 'It is our responsibility as glaciologists of this generation to make sure a bit of it is preserved.' Human-caused carbon emissions have warmed the planet by 1.1 degrees Celsius since the 19th century. Studies indicate that the Arctic is warming between two and four times faster than the global average.