1993

Obtaining a drill core sample of ice from the Greenland Ice Sheet required a multidisciplinary team of earth scientists, led by Drs. Paul Mayevski and Mark Twickler from the Climate Change Center at the University of New Hampshire. Two kilometers long, this ice core spans 200,000 years of Earth's history and took five years to extract. The chemistry of the ice core reveals past ice ages, the impact of volcanic eruptions on global climate, the onset of the Industrial Revolution, and the passing of the Clean Air Act in 1974 by the United States Congress. Three meters of this ice core will be displayed in a refrigerated case in the Exhibition.

The 32.5 m diameter drill dome houses the drill and the lower part of its 37 m tower. The drill dome is connected via trenches and shafts to the subterranean core processing line.

photo credit: Mark Twickler, University of New Hampshire