News Brief by Kip Hansen
No, really…no kidding here…this is a real disaster. This is not Fake News!
Here’s the story, from the NY Times’ Tatiana Schlossberg (and here):
“Ice from the Canadian Arctic has completely melted, leaving puddles of water in its place and scientists devastated.
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.
On April 2, the temperature of a storage freezer in the Canadian Ice Core Archive rose to about 100 degrees —… “
Now that’s Arctic warming — 100 degrees (F?) in a storage freezer?
“…some part of the cooling system failed, “then tried to get itself back into action and in the process, piped hot air back into the room,” according to Martin Sharp, the director of the archive. The freezer became so hot that it tripped the fire alarm, Dr. Sharp said, and partially or fully melted 180 ice cores collected by government scientists since the mid-1970s from the snowy expanse of the Canadian Arctic.
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.”
Luckily, although there were 12 complete cores, comprising more than 1,400 one-meter segments, which were believed to cover about 80,000 years of atmospheric history, “none of the 12 main cores were wholly destroyed.” They did lose about 12% of the total collection.
The loss of this important repository of ice cores and the data that could be extracted from it is regrettable. We are assured that steps are being taken to prevent any future loss.
My sympathies go out to the Canadian Ice Core Archive, Dr. Martin Sharp, its Director, and the many scientists who work will be hampered by this sad event.
It was Russians wat done it.
‘collected by government scientists since the mid-1970s’
How long does it take to tease the data out of ice cores? They had had these for up to 40 years. Most should have been thrown out years – decades – ago.
It has taken decades of rigorous torture to get the data to tell them the story they want to hear.
C’mon, they’ll probably just refreeze it.
I mean, it’s not like anyone is going to go back and check their work.
/grin
I wonder if a carbon tax could have kept the freezer from overheating.
Perhaps a billion dollars in research funding would help answer that question.
The freezer became so hot that it tripped the fire alarm, Dr. Sharp said, and partially or fully melted 180 ice cores collected by government scientists
Am I the only one recalling something like “The dog ate my data”?
ES @ur momisugly 10:05: “…The ice doesn’t need to melt completely: ‘Once melting occurs, melted water from one core segment can contaminate other segments stored nearby.'”
So. Second-order problem here, about the design of the storage unit to deal with cooling failure. Could they have designed a system that would not contaminate one sample with the melt-water from others? What about sealed compartments to keep leakage segregated?
Lots of cost-benefit trade-offs here, I don’t expect answers to show massive incompetence. But maybe there are lessons for future systems suppliers and users. Compared to a better freezer design, what does it cost to make another trip to the original glacier, to produce a “kinda sorta similar” sample?
An education in irony. Scientists can do amazing work but they have trouble keeping the electricity on. A lesson for California, South Australia, and Ontario in there somewhere.
Reminds me of the old Larsen cartoon: a cryogenic facility with bodies looking a little – er – Stiff, housed in large vertical cabinets.
The cleaner, just heading out the door, has tripped over the power cord and turned off the light…..
With the closeness to the ‘March For Hypocrisy’ … I am suspicious of … planned ulterior motives.
On the other hand it could not have happened to a more deserving bunch of loons.
Call it a “Random Act Of ‘Anthropogenic Local Warming'”!
Jaja
OK, OK…I think it is time we heard the real story: They had a big party, and ran out of ice, and guess who they sent to look for more?
Might have been a smart Green idea to cling wrap (recyclable) them and rope them together and store them back down the holes they came from. After all if they melt they’re surplus to requirements anyway.
“My sympathies go out to the Canadian Ice Core Archive, Dr. Martin Sharp, its Director, and the many scientists who work will be hampered by this sad event.”
–>
My sympathies go out to the Canadian Ice Core Archive, Dr. Martin Sharp, its Director, and the many scientists whose work will be hampered by this sad event.
Sad.
Tatiana Schlossberg, https://youtu.be/krK7Q49o6uA
By the way Tatiana,
I grew up z’Mattighofen Schlossbergstrasse 12.
You know your heritage?
http://www.ff-mattighofen.at/-94/items/id-03062015-flurbrand.html
Anyone here buying Schlossbergs are a great leap forward.
https://www.google.at/search?q=tatiana+schlossberg&oq=Tatiana&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l3.9832j0j4&client=ms-android-samsung&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
heart braker, King maker –
heartbreaker, kingmaker, environmental reporter for @nytscience. New York.
What’s up with Schlossbergstrasse.
Over on the west side of the pond not many know what is going on on this side, and even fewer are interested. Of course thanks to the president Trump’s election campaign pronouncements, the Brexit is an exception.
However, the turmoil in Europe may get worse in the next few weeks. There is a strong possibility that in the second round of French presidential election two candidates are a Eurosceptic hard-Left (communist) and Eurosceptic hard-Right (r…t ) .
Both candidates are anti-American, anti-German, anti-globalist, anti-NATO, and pro-Putin.
A broken freezer; some lost ice?
Cui bono?
I’m with @Mr. Bliss: Why fret about some lost source material – climate science is settled, is it not?
All ==> I usually try to respond to comments on anything I author here….this piece,. just a news brief, hjardly need much — but I was traveling all day and missed the sow.
Thanks for reading, thanks for commenting….
SORRY ==> Somehow I missed David Middleton’s identical coverage of this story on the tenth….family medical emergency kept me away from the ‘Net. My Apologies.
In today’s newspaper…
Thousands of years of Arctic ice samples destroyed after University of Alberta freezer malfunctions (GW research, ice cores)
A massive freezer failure has damaged Arctic ice cores containing tens of thousands of years of climate change information invaluable to researchers.
“For every ice-core facility on the planet, this is their No. 1 nightmare,” University of Alberta glaciologist Martin Sharp said Thursday.
The Canadian Ice Core Archive includes 1.4 km of ice-core samples, representing more than 10,000 years of climate change.
More than 180 metres of ice was lost after a freezer in Edmonton malfunctioned over the weekend. That amounts to 12.8 per cent of the collection.
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/thousands-of-years-of-arctic-ice-samples-destroyed-after-university-of-alberta-freezer-malfunctions