Anyone have any clue where I can get a measuring tape for sea ice in Europe? The only supplier I have found is the very lovely and friendly Kovacs, but they are US based and the cost and time for delivery are crazy.
I mean one like this:

#glaciology #seaice #Hivemind #academicChatter

The Gabriel Icefall on the Gulkana Glacier, Eastern Alaska Range. About 400 vertical feet of ice in this frame. The striations are annual accumulation layers that become folded during flow. Towering seracs form where crevasses intersect as the ice is deformed over the steepening terrain.

#alaska #glacier #hiking #glaciology

Random from SIPEXII 2012.

I was coordinating a team of people drilling holes through sea ice at 1m intervals along a transect line. The helicopter was doing laps overhead for snow radar reasons, so we had a play. From left to right:

1. business as usual, drilling away
2. making some kind of symbol?
3. all waving at the camera
4. oops there's been an incident!

I'm telling you, you *want* me to run your field things. Do awesome, be safe, have fun!

#fieldwork #glaciology #seaice #antarctica

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/27/antarctic-ice-sanctuary-cave-melting-glacier-samples

Interesting endeavour! As mountain glaciers melt, their trapped gas and also pollen records first blur by meltwater intrusions – and then vanish completely in the melt process.

French and Italian research institutes and the Albert of Monaco Foundation banded up to collect and preserve 20 ice core samples from mountains around the world. Storage site: a 10m deep dug-out ice cave near their 🇫🇷 🇮🇹 Concordia Station in #Antarctica
The core archive will be open-access to every researcher globally, provided they get to the location.

At -52°C inside the cave, melting of the cores is prevented. But natural ice flow processes – Antarctica isn't a static clump of ice – will require someone to dig a new cave every 60 to 70 years and move the cores. (Or invent a storage site that can withstand the glacier flow?)
I searched for that bit of information specifically and found it at min. 37 in the inauguration video https://www.ice-memory.org/ice-memory-foundation-/press-release-inauguration-of-the-ice-memory-sanctuary-in-antarctica-1698645.kjsp?RH=1832088615308700

Another example of how Antarctica isn't a static clump of ice: to counter the ice flow movement, the actual pole at the South Pole gets dug out New Year,'s and stuck back into the ice 10m back: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-south-pole-just-moved-heres-why/

#Glacier #IceCore #archive #ClimateChange #Glaciology

The Last Ice Memory: The Race to Core the World’s Glaciers Before They Vanish

Time is running out for Earth's frozen archives. In 2026, scientists are racing to core the world's most endangered glaciers before they melt forever. Discover the "Ice Memory" mission to preserve our climate's past for the scientists of the future. #BorealTimes #IceMemory #Glaciology #ClimateAction #ScienceHistory

https://borealtimes.org/the-last-ice-memory/

The Last Ice Memory: The Race to Core the World’s Glaciers Before They Vanish

The Last Ice Memory 2026: The Global Race to Save Glacial History

The Melting Library: Preserving Earth’s Frozen Manuscripts

In the high-altitude peaks and polar expanses of 2026, a specialized group of scientists is engaged in what can only be described as a desperate rescue mission. They are not saving people or artifacts in the traditional sense; they are saving ice. This is the year of the “Last Ice Memory,” a global initiative to extract deep ice cores from the world’s most vulnerable glaciers before the accelerating “Cryosphere Meltdown” erases the data they contain. These ice cores are the Earth’s most accurate historical manuscripts, containing trapped bubbles of ancient atmosphere, volcanic ash, and chemical signatures that tell the story of our planet’s climate over hundreds of thousands of years.

The empirical urgency of this mission is driven by a stark reality: at current warming rates, many non-polar glaciers in the Alps, Andes, and Kilimanjaro are expected to lose their stratigraphical integrity by 2030. When a glacier melts superficially, the water percolates down through the layers, blurring the chemical distinctness of the ice and “scrambling” the historical record. Data from the 2025 glacial survey indicates that over 40% of mid-latitude mountain glaciers have already reached a point of “climatic noise,” where the annual layers are becoming unreadable. For glaciologists, this is equivalent to a library being burned to the ground; once the ice melts, the history is gone forever.

The Ice Memory Foundation, a multi-national effort supported by UNESCO and various polar institutes, has intensified its operations in 2026. Their methodology is as rigorous as it is heroic. Teams ascend to extreme altitudes—often above 6,000 meters—to drill hundreds of meters into the heart of the glacier. Two cores are typically extracted: one for immediate study to understand our current trajectory, and a “heritage core” that is destined for a permanent sanctuary in Antarctica. This “Ice Archive” in the Antarctic interior, near the Concordia Research Station, provides a natural freezer at -50°C, ensuring these samples remain pristine for centuries without the risk of power failure or political instability.

The human element of this race is profound. These expeditions are grueling, requiring scientists to endure extreme cold, hypoxia, and isolation. Many of the researchers involved speak of a “sacred duty” to the scientists of the 22nd and 23rd centuries. They are operating on the empirical assumption that future technology will be able to extract even more information from these cores than we can today—perhaps identifying ancient viruses (as discussed in our permafrost analysis) or isotopic variations that current instruments are too blunt to detect. In 2026, we are essentially mailing a letter to the future, written in water and air.

The economic and ethical implications of this race are also surfacing. The cost of a single high-altitude coring expedition can exceed $1 million, leading to debates about “scientific triage.” How do we decide which glacier to save when we cannot save them all? Empirical models developed in early 2026 use AI to prioritize glaciers that are “high-fidelity archives”—those that have remained stable for the longest time but are now at the highest risk of immediate collapse. This selection process is a form of scientific ethics that forces humanity to confront the scale of its impact on the natural world.

Furthermore, the data retrieved from these “last memories” is already providing crucial insights into the 2026 climate landscape. By comparing ancient CO2 levels found in 100,000-year-old ice with current atmospheric readings, scientists can refine their “Climate Sensitivity” models with unprecedented precision. This empirical feedback loop is vital for policy makers who are navigating the transition to a post-carbon economy. The ice does not lie; it provides a cold, hard baseline against which all modern climate promises can be measured.

Culturally, the Ice Memory project has sparked a movement of “Glacial Witnessing.” Around the world, local communities are holding ceremonies as these glaciers are cored, acknowledging the loss of their local water towers and spiritual landmarks. This humanized connection to the ice is essential for building the collective resilience needed for the decades ahead. The glaciers are not just blocks of ice; they are part of our shared human heritage.

As we move toward the 2027 cycle, the window for many of these glaciers is closing. The 2026 expeditions to the Himalayas and the Arctic’s peripheral ice caps are likely the last successful coring attempts possible for these locations. The “Last Ice Memory” is more than a scientific project; it is an act of intergenerational justice. It is the human spirit refusing to let the past vanish along with the ice, ensuring that even if the glaciers disappear from our mountains, their wisdom remains preserved in the heart of the white continent.

In the end, these cores are a testament to both our past and our future. They remind us of the stability we once had and the precision we must now exercise to regain it. The race to core the ice is a race to save our own memory.

References and Scientific Studies

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