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Ice from the Grand Combin glacier is stored in the ice archive in Antarctica, which opened today. (archive picture)
Keystone
A new ice archive in Antarctica preserves samples of melting glaciers. The "Ice Memory" foundation opened the archive on Wednesday. The first ice cores from the Alps are now stored in the eternal ice.
The first two stored ice cores come from glaciers on the Grand Combin in Switzerland and Mont Blanc in France, as the foundation announced on Wednesday. They reached Antarctica after a journey of over fifty days by ship and plane.
The archive is a 35-metre-long ice cave that was dug into the snow at a depth of around nine meters. It is stored at a constant natural temperature of around minus 52 degrees Celsius.
According to the foundation, the ice cores contain information about the atmosphere of the past and will be available to future generations of researchers.
The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and researchers from the University of Bern are also involved in the initiative.
14.01.2026, 11:34
