Overview
- The first deposits consist of Alpine cores from Mont Blanc and Grand Combin, officially installed this week as the site entered operation.
- The archive is a 35-meter-long chamber roughly 9–10 meters below the surface that preserves ice without active refrigeration at approximately −51 to −54 °C.
- The specimens traveled more than 50 days under a strict cold chain, stored at −20 °C on the Italian research ship Laura Bassi before a special unheated flight to Concordia.
- The Ice Memory initiative coordinates French and Italian polar institutes with scientists from Italy, France and Switzerland to create a long-term repository.
- Organizers plan to add cores from regions including the Andes, Himalaya, Pamir, Caucasus and Svalbard, aiming to conserve about 20 samples in 20 years as glacier loss accelerates.