Overview
- Scientists inaugurated the underground archive on 14 January, placing cores from Mont Blanc and Grand Combin into the snow cave.
- The facility sits near the Concordia research station at about 3,200 meters elevation with a 35-meter chamber roughly 10 meters beneath the surface.
- Designed to preserve ice without mechanical cooling, the site leverages stable Antarctic temperatures close to −52°C.
- Project leaders from the Ice Memory Foundation describe a race to rescue glacier archives as warming accelerates, noting Copernicus ranked 2025 the third-warmest year on record.
- Additional cores from the Alps, Andes, Himalaya and Tajikistan are planned over coming decades following nearly a decade of logistical and diplomatic groundwork.