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EASTGRIP CAMP, GREENLAND - JULY 29: Scientists with the East Greenland Ice-Core Project (EastGRIP) enjoy the midnight light at the main dome's lounge area at EastGRIP camp on July 29, 2022. The main dome serves as a mess, kitchen, lounge, main office area and air control tower. It also contains toilets, a shower bay, and a 'service floor' with laundry facilities. EastGRIP is an international science station on the Greenland ice sheet, the second-largest ice body in the world after the Antarctic ice cap. The team at EastGRIP, led by the University of Copenhagen in coordination with the Danish Centre for Ice and Climate and other partners, aims to drill through 2650 meters of undisturbed ice dating back 80,000 years, to glean new knowledge of ice-sheet dynamics and how fast-flowing ice streams will contribute to sea-level rise. The resulting ice core will also create a new record of past climatic and atmospheric conditions from the northeastern part of the Greenland Ice Sheet, informing our understanding of how it may respond to a changing climate. This summer marked the first season of fieldwork since 2019, after the Covid-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 field seasons. After two months of preparation this spring, the drilling operation started on July 7th and ended on August 6th, yielding a new 300 meters of core drilled and a maximum depth of 2418.23 meters. That leaves them less than 250 meters from their target depth, which the team aims to achieve next year. With this year's fieldwork concluded, the ice core samples retrieved this summer will now be sent to laboratories around the world to be analyzed, with new findings presented later this year.<br />
(Photo by Lukasz Larsson Warzecha/Getty Images)