NATIONAL ICE CORE LABORATORY

The National Ice Core Laboratory is the world’s leading ice core research facility. Operated by the U. S. Geological Survey, it was founded in 1993 near Denver, Colorado. The laboratory maintains a 55,000-cubic-foot freezer at a temperature of -32º F and stores stainless-steel tubes containing 22,000 meters (13.7 miles) of ice cores from the polar regions.

From their polar drilling sites, cores are packed in dry ice and flown to the Ice Core Laboratory where the layers are dated by electrical-conductivity measurements. For analysis, the cores are cut into sections, packed in dry ice, and sent to university and private laboratories around the world.