AFP, Paris

Arctic scientists are set to start drilling to save samples of ancient ice for analysis before the frozen layers melt away due to climate change, mission organisers said yesterday. Italian, French and Norwegian researchers have set up camp in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago in what they called a race against time to preserve crucial ice records for analysing past environmental conditions. They will extract ice in a series of tubes from as far as 125 metres (137 yards) below the surface, containing frozen geochemical traces dating back three centuries. Analysis of chemicals in deep “ice cores” provides scientists with valuable data about past environmental conditions. But experts warn water from melting ice is leaking down and altering geochemical records preserved in ancient ice beneath. Scientists “seeing their primary material disappear”, said Jerome Chapellaz, president of Ice Memory foundation.