O.K., this is what actually happened: Ice cores, millennia-old ice samples extracted by scientists from locations across the Canadian Arctic, melted because of a freezer malfunction in a lab at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. The loss of these ice cores could hinder scientific research into how changes in the atmosphere have shaped Earth’s climate history, and how they could affect its future. Dr. Sharp, also a glaciology professor at the university, said there was water all over the floor, and steam rising from puddles of ancient water. Ice cores, which are long cylinders scientists extract from glaciers, ice sheets or ice caps, contain gas bubbles, pollen, dust particles, or chemical isotopes that give scientists clues about what Earth’s temperature and atmosphere were like when the ice caps first formed. Advertisement Continue reading the main storyLuckily, the oldest ice in the collection, from the last continental ice sheet that covered North America, was put into a different freezer, Dr. Sharp said.

Source: New York Times April 11, 2017 23:03 UTC