Deep "ice core" chemical analysis yields vital information about former environmental conditions for scientists. PARIS: Arctic scientists 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 have set up camp in Norway´s Svalbard archipelago in what they called a race against time to preserve crucial ice records for analysing past environmental conditions. They will extract ice in a series of tubes from as far as 125 metres 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 water from melting ice 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 Ice Memory foundation running the operation said.
