Snow and Ice

More than 300,000 meteorites lie on the Antarctic ice. They contain an unprecedented wealth of information about our solar system. With every tenth of a degree of global warming, thousands of meteorites sink. Researchers from WSL and ETH Zurich recommend that their collection be promoted.

Environmental scientist Alice Pradel cultivates ice cores in the lab to investigate the transport and accumulation of micro- and nanoplastics. Her aim in doing so is to better understand material flows in the Arctic ice.

As part of the Ice Memory initiative, PSI researchers, with colleagues from the University of Fribourg and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice as well as the Institute of Polar Sciences of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), analysed ice cores drilled in 2018 and 2020 from the Corbassière glacier at Grand Combin in the canton of Valais. A comparison of the two sets of ice cores published in Nature Geoscience shows: Global warming has made at least this glacier unusable as a climate archive.

Nearly a quarter of the Earth’s land surface is permanently frozen. These areas, known as permafrost, are found in northern polar regions and at high altitudes. But the permafrost is now starting to thaw – with potentially disastrous consequences for the climate. Here, we look at what scientists currently know about this potential threat.

With climate change resulting in less natural snow and higher temperatures, challenging times lie ahead for tourist destinations that depend on winter sports, as well as for winter sports fans. Artificial snow and snow farming can help, but even these have their limitations.

8 June is World Oceans Day. The SLF is also conducting research in the ocean, namely on sea ice. In a short interview Ruzica Dadic, head of the research unit Snow and Atmosphere at the SLF, talks about the motivation for and the goals of these studies.