CORE VALUES

WORLD'S FIRST ICE VAULT PRESERVES CHUNKS OF ANCIENT GLACIERS

On Wednesday 14th January 2026, scientists sealed two ice cores from glaciers in the European Alps inside a purpose-built snow cave around 10 miles below the surface, in Antarctica in the hope of preserving them and other glacial cores from around the world to provide an invaluable archive for future scientists to study.

Ice from France's Mont Blanc and Switzerland's Grand Combin glacier were the first ever samples to be stashed away in the long term repository, known as the Ice Memory Sanctuary, at Concordia Station in the heart of Antarctica. Here they will be protected in natural cold storage at minus 52 °C without the need for any refrigeration.

Carrying the memory of the Earth's past atmosphere, the core samples allude to atmospheric circulation patterns and long-term weather and climate trends. Separate climate change projections for the Alps are that the glaciers below 4,000 metres will disappear before the end of the century, and even the ice that survives will be compromised by melt, hence the need for speed. But this ambitious project has already been in development for more than a decade and in the decades to come, scientists intend to expand the collection, sampling 20 glaciers in 20 years and stocking the archive with glacial ice from alpine regions such as the Andes, Himalayas, and Tajikistan.

"To safeguard what would be otherwise irreversibly lost ... is an endeavour for humanity," said Thomas Stocker, a Swiss climate scientist and Chairman of the Ice Memory Foundation, which spearheaded the initiative.

Professor Carlo Barbante, Vice-Chair, said the history of many of the Earth's regions, and humanity's impact on them, is preserved in glaciers and he hopes that researchers in the future will be able to study traces left behind in the ice by events nearby, ranging from dust from combustion to DNA from species, from volcanic eruptions to nuclear bomb tests.

Prince Albert II of Monaco joined the opening ceremony as Honorary President of the Ice Memory Foundation, and he echoed that message from the glaciologists: "We are reminded of the fragility and permanence of our planet," he said. "Glaciers should be recognised as a common heritage of humanity. The memory of our planet matters. Safeguarding it is our common duty and responsibility."

(Pic credits, Ice Memory Foundation: menu pic copyright Riccardo Selvatico; core samples copyright SDB; cave entrance copyright Gaetano Massimo Macri CNR ENEA)