Ice Memory

With global change and its amplified impact at high altitudes or in certain regions of the world, mountain glaciers are particularly sensitive to warming. These same glaciers, which have been studied for several decades, have made it possible to reconstruct, through the study of ice cores, unique information on the evolution of the climate or the environment on a regional and global scale since they are located closer to the main regions and sources of aerosol emissions. Unfortunately, these archives are in the process of being altered and are disappearing. It is in this context that the international project ICE MEMORY was initiated in 2015. ICE MEMORY is built on four pillars : 1) Identify, select glacier and extract several complete ice cores, at least two, from sites that have already demonstrated their high scientific potential before they are altered, 2) Analyse one of the cores in order to extract the maximum parameters of information using all currently available technologies and make this data available to the scientific community of today and tomorrow, 3) Store the remaining cores in a naturally adapted site such as the French-Italien Concordia station in Antarctica so that they can be preserved and donated to future generations of scientists, and 4) to set up a sustainable governance system based on an accredited international organization in charge of managing these ice and data archives in the future.

This presentation will highlight all the operations, analyses and organization already achieved as well as the future vision and development of ICE MEMORY.