1950
- Depth
- 58 m
- CO2
- 328 ppm
The post-war rise is already legible in the trapped air. Below this line the numbers were never this high before.
Cryosphere ice-core archive
Ice-core archive · surface to bedrock
Cryosphere
The archive is melting. Read it while you can.
Every metre down is roughly a decade back.
1900
- Depth
- 112 m
- CO2
- 296 ppm
Pre-industrial air, held under a century of accumulated snow. The bubbles are older than the machines that warmed them.
1815
- Depth
- 174 m
- Sulfate
- +412 %
A thin grey band. Tambora erupted and dimmed the year without a summer. Ash reached this glacier and stayed.
~1250
- Depth
- 388 m
- delta-18O
- -33.1
The medieval warm interval, warmer isotopes in the ice. Brief, regional, and nothing like the slope above it.
~10,000 yr
- Depth
- 1642 m
- delta-18O
- -41.7
The end of the last ice age. The oldest air the core still holds. Everything above it is one long exhale.
Ice-core archive · surface to bedrock
Cryosphere
The archive is melting. Read it while you can.
The record, surface to bedrock
Every metre down is roughly a decade back. The deeper the ice, the older the air.
- 20260 m
Surface424 ppm
The firn at the top. Air still mixing with the sky. The record begins here and reads downward.
- 195058 m
CO2328 ppm
The post-war rise is already legible in the trapped air. Below this line the numbers were never this high before.
- 1900112 m
CO2296 ppm
Pre-industrial air, held under a century of accumulated snow. The bubbles are older than the machines that warmed them.
- 1815174 m
Sulfate+412 %
A thin grey band. Tambora erupted and dimmed the year without a summer. Ash reached this glacier and stayed.
- ~1250388 m
delta-18O-33.1
The medieval warm interval, warmer isotopes in the ice. Brief, regional, and nothing like the slope above it.
- ~10,000 yr1642 m
delta-18O-41.7
The end of the last ice age. The oldest air the core still holds. Everything above it is one long exhale.
Bedrock · end of the record
The oldest ice
Below the last reading the core turns to bedrock. What it holds is the air of a colder world, sealed before anyone was counting. It took ten thousand years to write and it is thawing in one.
68°38'N 018°03'W · retrieved depth 1642 m
Field note
How a core is read
There is nothing mystical about it. You take the ice out in order, you keep the order, and you let the air speak for itself.
- Drill
- A hollow bit turns down through the ice and lifts a cylinder of it to the surface, one metre at a time.
- Log
- Each section is measured, photographed and stacked in order. Depth is the only clock that matters here.
- Melt
- Slices are melted in a clean line. The air that escapes has been sealed since the snow that trapped it fell.
- Read
- Gas ratios and isotopes are counted against depth. The graph that comes out is a record, not a forecast.
Adopt a metre of the record
Every metre of core is a decade that can still be read. Put your name to one, and help keep the archive legible while there is an archive left to keep.
Adopt a metre of the recordA fictional archive for a design showcase. No real data is collected.