In Denver's National Ice Core Laboratory, It's Always the Dead of Winter

The National Ice Core Laboratory, located in Denver, Colorado, stores samples of ice sheets collected in Greenland and Antarctica that hold the keys to Earth’s past and the history of our planet’s climate.

Photo Credit: Instagram,frozen_phonton

The ice is kept in opaque cylinders and aluminum-lined cardboard tubes and stored in what amounts to a huge, freezing cold warehouse. The 10+ miles of ice core samples have to be kept at -36 degrees C – all day, every day.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Scientists and researchers can request permission to use part of a core and, if granted, can use the adjoining research facility to slice a portion of the ice and prepare it to travel to their home facilities. Much of the current and ongoing climate science is done using this process, as scientists can date the ice using isotope analysis and correlate it to existing C02 levels at the time.