The deepest ice core ever drilled in the Americas — reaching 613 metres — has been pulled from the Müller Ice Cap on Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut, by an international research team co-led by a ß÷ßäÉçÇø researcher who is hoping to unlock an untold record of Arctic climate and ocean variability from as far back as 20,000 years ago.
“Such a remote site, at the edge of the Arctic Ocean, will offer unprecedented insight into the long-range atmospheric transport of environmental contaminants to the far North — reconstructions of great importance both to science and to local communities,” says , U of A director of the Canadian Ice Core Lab and researcher in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
After nearly two months of drilling, often in temperatures that dipped below -30 C, the drill team reached bedrock on May 17, also recovering pebbles and sand from beneath the ancient ice. This deep ice core, along with the recovered geological material, will be transported to the Canadian Ice Core Lab at the U of A for analysis.
Criscitiello says the significance of this core’s location cannot be overstated, noting that unlike cores drilled on the eastern edge of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago along Baffin Bay, this new core is uniquely positioned to reveal long-term changes – perhaps as far back as 20,000 years — in Arctic Ocean sea ice, a critical indicator of global climate health.
“Because of where this ice cap sits on the western edge of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, we expect it to contain a very long record of Arctic Ocean variability that other island ice caps don’t,” she says.
Criscitiello’s team is particularly excited to study elements like sea salts and halogens, which are deposited in snow but originate from the ocean, and can help reconstruct past sea ice conditions.
Beyond ancient climate records, the project also tackles more recent environmental concerns. In addition to the deep core, Criscitiello and her team drilled three shallower 70-metre ice cores. These will provide a detailed look at pollution and contaminant transport to the region over the past two centuries.
Criscitiello says this ambitious project has not only advanced drilling technology in Canada but also introduced novel methods for ice measurement and fostered the growth of a new generation of climate researchers. The knowledge gained from this unprecedented undertaking will significantly improve predictions of future climate changes, benefiting northern communities and beyond.
She adds the success of the project is a testament to strong collaboration, bringing together leading ice and climate researchers from across Canada and Denmark.
The expedition was made possible by funding from the University of Manitoba’s Dorthe Dahl-Jensen’s . It also supports studies by University of British Columbia researcher Anais Orsi, who is examining greenhouse gases and mercury levels in the atmosphere’s past by pumping air in and out of the ice core’s firn layer — a layer of older snow that is halfway between snow and glaciers. This technique provides valuable insights into past atmospheric composition.
“For me, one of the most incredible things about this project is that it brings not just the ice cores, but scientists like Dorthe and Anais and their teams to the U of A, which is going to help us continue to launch to the top of this field — something we can’t do without collaboration,” says Criscitiello.
“The Canadian Ice Core Lab is a hub for international scientific collaboration as researchers gather to image, cut and analyze the precious ice cores, ultimately making the data accessible to the broader scientific community for continued discovery,” she says.
The deep ice core was drilled with equipment developed at the University of Copenhagen, and with the support of the , the and .
