Nicolás González could not imagine barely marching in the middle of February and in the middle of a blizzard at -25 degrees of temperature. To his consolation, he wasn’t doing it alone. Behind him were two porters carrying 25 kilos of scientific equipment, although the group was led by the Basque mountaineer Alex Txikon. All of them were heading to the K2 base camp in the Karakoram mountain range (Pakistan), a few kilometers from the Chinese border. The 30-year-old’s mission, however, was not to reach the summit, but to obtain several snow samples from one of its glaciers, the Baltoro, about 60 kilometers long. If everything went well, he was closer to becoming a doctor in Geology from the University of the Basque Country.
“During our expedition in winter 2019, the rainfall in the area was the most intense in the last half century,” González recalls. Despite several unforeseen events, the samples could be extracted, and the research could be carried out. He explains that his goal was to analyze how the black carbon that settled in the seasonal mantle affected the snow. Also, checking the flow using a mass flow meter gas or other equipment.
All those parts of the planet that have permanent ice are of interest for the research of this group, which is focused on the cryosphere (the parts of the Earth’s surface where water is in a solid state). González has also analyzed the ice of the Monte Perdido glacier—whose disappearance is now inevitable—and is currently participating in a study based on a “superficial” ice core from Greenland, extracted about 120 meters deep, within the EastGRIP project.
It does so from a pioneering laboratory in Spain, located at the BC3 climate change research center in Leioa (Bizkaia). The facility was named Izotzalab (izotz means “ice” in Basque). In it, up to six researchers work with ice from different parts of the planet in conditions similar to those they would do in those places. “From these buttons,” says Patricia Muñoz, research technician, “I can regulate the air humidity and temperature. We usually work between -20 and -30 degrees. Here, there are always two people working. On some occasions, both, inside; in others, one in this room, from where we monitor the interior,” she explains.
For their daily work they are governed by the existing legislation for cold storage rooms and, for example, they have to take breaks every hour. Before entering, they dress in special protective clothing and acclimatize for a few minutes in an antechamber.
The ice is stored in plastic bags distributed in two chests that reach temperatures of up to -80 degrees. From the cylinder-shaped rough, a sample is cut and polished for analysis. In total, they conserve about 600 kilos or, in other words, enough material for “several years” of work. “It is impossible to give a monetary value to the ice that we have stored,” confesses Muñoz. However, he is clear that the processes for its extraction have involved million-dollar expeditions.
Sérgio Henrique Faria is the scientist who heads Izotzalab. He receives EL PAÍS in his office full of photographs of expeditions, from where he waits for a project to require new samples from a particular site. This scientist of Brazilian origin highlights the importance of the information contained in the ice: “When snow is deposited, it captures all the atmospheric chemistry. When it accumulates, as its structure is granular, voids are formed that, with the own weight of the layer, become isolated bubbles.” Therefore, they retain the exact air at the moment of their compaction.
For example, in research carried out in Antarctica, the atmosphere from 800,000 years ago was analyzed. “Now, there is a race to see which country can get ice from more than a million years ago,” says Faria.
The group studying the Greenland samples has managed to reach 130,000 years. It is made up of, among others, Spanish and Japanese researchers. “The air and temperature analysis is carried out by Japan, while we focus on the physical-mechanical analysis,” summarizes the person in charge of the laboratory. In this project, the task of Faria’s team is to “understand how snow has been compacted and transformed into ice so that the models, both ice flow and climate records, can be correctly interpreted.”
González adds that by seeing how snow transforms into ice, “we can refine our knowledge about the encapsulation process of these pieces of atmosphere. A lot of information is recorded,” he reflects.
Six people currently work in this 25 square meter laboratory. Two are its director and its research technician, while the rest are scientists, who rotate depending on their work, doctoral students or interns. The financing comes mainly from the Basque Government, through a portion for the BC3, but also from the Spanish Government. Asked about the cost of the laboratory, those in charge claim to be unaware of it.
The melting of glaciers in Alaska, the Himalayas, the Andes or the Alps affects the water security of the communities that depend on their rivers. Regarding the two poles, the concern focuses on the rise in sea level. “The disappearance of ice is always connected to the cycle of life, water or precipitation itself,” adds the BC3 researcher. “For this reason, it is a fundamental indicator of the effects of climate change,” he adds.
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