NSF-ICF (NICL)

The thermostat may read 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside the sprawling federal research complex in Lakewood, Colorado, but inside, CU Boulder undergraduate student Casey Vanderheyden is donning a bulky winter coat, gloves and boots as though she is headed to the South Pole.

LAKEWOOD, Colo. (AP) – Inside a huge walk-in freezer in suburban Denver, a college student in a thick parka shoots a jolt of electricity through a yard-long column of ice extracted from Antarctica.

Dr. Lindsay Powers is the new Technical Director of the National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL). Lindsay has a diverse and complimentary background in research, science support, and business management.

On April 10, 1978 Betty Adrian began her USGS career. She was hired as a geologic field assistant to assist in the collection of samples that would help determine the mineral resource potential for metallic minerals in the Wallace 1° x 2° quadrangle, Montana and Idaho.

As an undergraduate, I switched universities more than once in my search for the perfect major and program. I had plenty of enthusiasm for science, but very little focus – I had no idea what I wanted to study.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has supported U.S. ice core facilities for storing, curating, and studying meteoric ice cores recovered from the glaciated regions of the world for over four decades.

Brian Bencivengo concluded his time as Assistant Curator of the National Ice Core Laboratory on February 7, 2014.

On January 30, 2013 the National Science Foundation and the United States Geological Survey entered into a new Interagency Agreement for "Operations and Maintenance of the National Ice Core Laboratory".

On October 20, 2011 the NICL refrigeration system was officially cooled using the new backup evaporative condenser unit (ECU-2).

Mick Sternberg had literally made the same measurement a thousand times before. But this meter-long ice core was perhaps just a little more special.

2011, what a remarkable year for U.S ice coring. WAIS Divide reached a milestone at 3,331 meters depth, creating the deepest ice core ever drilled by the U.S. and the second deepest ice core ever drilled by any group.

The U.S. National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL) houses approximately 17,000 meters of ice cores recovered from Greenland and Antarctica that are available for study.

Dedication. Commitment. Diligence. Those words come to mind when watching the WAIS Divide ice core processing at NICL this summer.

Essentially, it goes something like this. The story of our world is written in snow. Or more specifically in the layers of deposited snow that fall each year in the high and cold places of the planet, which eventually compact into ice and form glaciers.

It's midsummer in Denver, and the city has been baking under a heat wave for a couple of months. But in one small corner of the sprawling Denver Federal Center campus in the nearby suburb of Lakewood, about a dozen people are bundled up in thickly insulated Carhartt jumpsuits, wool caps, scarves and gloves

It's midsummer in Denver, and the city has been baking under a heat wave for a couple of months. But in one small corner of the sprawling Denver Federal Center campus in the nearby suburb of Lakewood, about a dozen people are bundled up in thickly insulated Carhartt jumpsuits, wool caps, scarves and gloves.

As of November 1, 2010, NSF is providing 100% of the funds for the operation and maintenance of the National Ice Core Laboratory. The inter-agency agreement between NSF and the USGS, originally established in 1996, is still active although the USGS fiscal responsibilities have ceased.

The news coming out of the North Eemian Ice Drilling (NEEM) project in Greenland regarding reaching the Eemian is extraordinarily exciting. The Eemian ice core record has been sought after in the Northern Hemisphere ever since the days of deep core drilling at Camp Century in the early 1960s.

Eric Cravens' last day as Assistant National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL) Curator was April 23, 2010. Eric received his BA from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1995.

As a result of broad discussions between the NSF and the USGS about how to manage NICL in the future and how NICL relates to various mission goals of each agency, the agencies have concluded that it will be better to dissolve the past relationship.

As you can see from our cover story, the inter-agency agreement between NSF and USGS that provides management at NICL is not planned for renewal beyond the current fiscal year. The relationship between the agencies operating NICL is still strong and they are actively working towards infrastructure improvements at the facility.

The U.S. National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL) is a government-owned facility on the grounds of the Denver Federal Center. NICL provides approximately 50,600 cubic feet of safeguarded freezer space, which is maintained at a temperature of -35 degrees C for the storage of ice cores collected from the polar ice sheets and glaciers from around the world.

Every few years we like to remind the community about the policies for the use of the National Ice Core Laboratory and acquisition of samples from the archive. You can read about these policies, which have been in place for more than 10 years, on page 8 of this issue and visit the link to read the complete policy.

As part of its internal strategic planning, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently evaluated its long-term commitment to operate the National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL).

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Director Mark Myers has informed NSF's Office of Polar Programs that USGS intends to continue to operate the National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL) for the foreseeable future.

As the International Polar Year continues we were honored to have Tony Gow visit us once again at the University of New Hampshire for our featured article on "Polar Ice Coring and IGY". I first met Tony in 1985 when he visited us to look at the stratigraphy of the Dominion Range ice core we had just collected.

As autumn rolls in, investigators from this year’s Arctic program have completed their fieldwork and are busy analyzing samples and data. It was a successful field season at Summit Station and two projects recovered ice cores.

Welcome to the 4th International Polar Year (IPY)! Over the next two years there will be intense focus on Polar research and several multi-institutional U.S ice coring projects will be ongoing during IPY. These include the WAIS Divide Ice Core Project, U.S. ITASE, a Norwegian/ U.S. scientific traverse in East Antarctica, and a new U.S.-European deep ice core in Greenland. Brief descriptions about these projects are included in this issue of In-Depth and we hope to follow up with longer articles on each project in upcoming issues.

The National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL) at the Denver Federal Center is a physical plant for storing, curating, and studying ice cores. The cores are collected from polar and other glaciers around the world.

Greetings and welcome to the first In Depth newsletter published by the National Ice Core Laboratory - Science Management Office (NICL-SMO). The purpose of In Depth is to keep the ice core community informed about activities, policies, and projects that effect those involved in ice core research; those who use ice core data; and those who have interest in the science resulting from ice coring and it’s data analysis.

The National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL) provides the archival repository for ice cores collected by the U.S. scientific community. The Facility's objectives are (1) insure maximum availability of samples to qualified investigators, (2) encourage analysis over a wide range of research disciplines without unnecessary duplication, and (3) encourage prompt publication of results.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) jointly manage and operate the National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL) in Denver, Colorado. This facility has proven to be vitally important for researchers from the ice core community.