Overview
- Scientists placed initial Alpine cores from Mont Blanc and Grand Combin into a 35‑meter snow cave excavated below the surface at the French‑Italian Concordia Station.
- Boxes totaling 1.7 tons arrived after a 50‑day refrigerated voyage from Trieste aboard the Laura Bassi icebreaker, followed by an unheated cargo flight to maintain −20°C transit conditions.
- The facility relies on natural cold to store samples without mechanical refrigeration, with Antarctic treaty status presented as a neutral setting though access rules are still being developed.
- The Ice Memory Foundation says cores from roughly 10 drilled sites are queued for transfer, with future sampling planned across the Andes, Himalayas and Central Asia.
- Project leaders cite accelerating glacier loss and record heat, with monitors confirming 2025 as the third‑warmest year, as the rationale for securing these archives now.