Paleo Slide Set: Polar Ice Cores
Edge of the Greenland Ice Sheet

The Earth's poles are harsh, nearly uninhabitable places where the summer sun lights the ground 
for months at a time before going into hiding for the entire winter. Ask anyone what they think 
of Greenland or Antarctica, and the first thing that'll come to mind is ice, lots of it. And it 
is ice that draws paleoclimatologists literally to the ends of the earth in the quest for knowledge 
about where our planet has been, where it is, and where it might be going. At the edge of the Greenland 
Ice Sheet, the slowly moving ice nears the end of its journey. Soon, it will slide into a glacial river 
and melt. After a 30 km journey, the water and sediment you see here will finally complete a cycle that 
may have started thousands of years back in the ocean. 

Photo Credits:
Kendrick Taylor 
Desert Research Institute (DRI), University of Nevada-Reno.