An Iceless Past

Within this subterranean cavern, scientists were refining a groundbreaking technique to reveal Earth's history. They viewed the ice sheet as a frozen archive, preserving ancient temperature records. By extracting ice cores, researchers could access crucial data about the planet's past, with deeper samples providing insights from further back in time.

Chet Langway, the geologist responsible for analyzing the ice cores at Camp Century, recalls, “The army allowed us to freeload with them.” This collaboration was essential as Langway and his team aimed to reach bedrock while maintaining the facade of scientific inquiry. Notably, Walter Cronkite even visited the drilling operation, further obscuring its military intentions.

The Architect

Henri Bader, who served as the chief scientist at the Army Corps Snow, Ice, and Permafrost Research Establishment (SIPRE) since the 1950s, was the mastermind behind the Camp Century experiment. He regarded the layered ice sheets as a “treasure trove” of atmospheric history through precise temperature readings.

These layers preserved atmospheric records, indicating that a deep ice core could unveil historical events, including volcanic ash deposits from eruptions like Huaynaputina in 1600 and Thera in 1600 BC. Given the substantial thickness of the central Greenland ice, it was anticipated that the historical record could extend far into the past.

Furthermore, air bubbles trapped in the ice captured atmospheric samples from when they were sealed. Aware that unearthing answers would be time-consuming, Bader embarked on the ambitious drilling project in 1963, aiming to reach near bedrock, approximately a mile down.

The Driller

Precision in handling the ice was critical, just as the quality of the drilling equipment. Herb Ueda, the technician in charge, recognized this importance and adapted an old oil rig to work effectively in icy conditions.

Despite its cumbersome nature, the modified rig — measuring 83 feet long and weighing 2,650 pounds, equipped with 8,000 feet of robust cable for stability — efficiently extracted ice cores, reaching depths of 20 feet. After six years of determination, they reached bedrock at 4,450 feet on July 4, 1966. Ueda described this moment as the pinnacle of his career.

In celebration, the team marked their achievement by placing a small chip of ancient ice dating back to the time of Christ into a glass of Drambuie, symbolizing the conclusion of Camp Century's military operations, which were abandoned in the summer of 1966.

The Scientists

Chet Langway emerged from Camp Century with over a thousand ice cores, which became the sole significant output of the failed military endeavor. He traveled globally, seeking help to analyze the trace gases and evidence within the cores. In 1966, Danish scientist Willi Dansgaard joined him, having previously assessed the site and declaring it a “scientific gold mine” for anyone with access.

Dansgaard, a pioneer in measuring oxygen isotopes, aimed to utilize a mass spectrometer to analyze these natural variations. By examining these isotopes, they could determine the surface air temperatures at the time the snowflakes fell, even if that was 10,000 or 15,000 years ago.

They meticulously gathered 7,500 samples from the Camp Century cores for analysis in Denmark. On October 17, 1969, they published their landmark findings in the journal Science, titled “One Thousand Centuries of Climatic Record from Camp Century on the Greenland Ice Sheet,” presenting a climate record extending nearly 100,000 years back.

> Langway reflects, “When Willi made that, he shocked the world. One of the most challenging aspects is determining past temperatures. This information can't be gleaned from carbon-dating rocks. But it can be done with gases in ice if their age is known.”

Updated Science and Patterns

A recent study by Christ et al. challenged the long-held belief that Greenland has been covered in ice for approximately 2.5 million years. Their research dated the tundra ecosystem in the Camp Century core to around 416,000 years ago, a time when global temperatures were similar to or slightly warmer than today. However, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were notably lower, approximately 280 parts per million compared to the present 419 parts per million, underscoring the severe effects of human-induced climate change.

“In that frozen sediment are leaf fossils, tiny insects, and bits of twigs and mosses indicating that a tundra ecosystem thrived where there is now nearly a mile of ice,” says Paul Bierman, a geoscientist at the University of Vermont and co-author of a recent paper detailing the findings in Science. “The ice sheet is fragile. It can vanish, and it has vanished. Now we have a date for that.”

> “It’s a forewarning,” notes Tammy Rittenour, a geoscientist at Utah State University and co-author of the new paper. “This can occur under much lower CO2 conditions than we currently experience.”

The ice melt in Greenland 400,000 years ago had dire consequences, potentially resulting in a sea-level rise of 5 to 20 feet. Currently, a mere one-foot rise is already causing chaos in coastal cities. The prospect of an additional 20 feet is alarming. One critical aspect is the ice-albedo feedback, where Greenland’s extensive ice sheets reflect solar energy back into space, helping to cool the planet. As sea ice diminishes, darker surfaces and ocean waters take its place, absorbing more heat and accelerating ice melting and global warming.

Even when temperatures remain below freezing, as is often the case in the Arctic, changes in temperature and humidity can alter the characteristics of snow grains. This metamorphosis can affect albedo, and thus the amount of sunlight reflected.

The future degradation of the Greenland ice sheet remains uncertain and requires additional investigation. While temperatures from 400,000 years ago were akin to today’s, the previous warming that led to Greenland’s ice melt occurred gradually. Human-induced global warming is happening much more rapidly, and the carbon dioxide we have emitted will linger in the atmosphere for thousands of years unless large-scale removal techniques are developed.

> “We now have definitive evidence that when the climate warms, the Greenland ice sheet disappears,” Bierman states. “And we’ve only just begun to warm the climate. We use the past to comprehend the future and the present, which makes the future somewhat daunting. Not that we should flee from it — but it’s a call to action.”

Epilogue: The Frozen Veil

Camp Century exemplified Cold War paranoia and eccentricity: an improbable outpost that was costly to construct, challenging to maintain, and uncomfortable to inhabit. Yet, the echoes from its iced tunnels resonate today, 64 years later, carrying a message we must heed.

In the October 17, 1969 Science article, Dansgaard wrote, “It appears that ice-core data provide far greater, and more direct, climatological detail than any previously known method.” While the study had its imperfections and moments of chaos, it hinted at a vital lesson for our time: climate can change rapidly and dramatically.

Today’s advancements in science and technology have validated his assertion. Since then, greenhouse gas emissions have more than doubled, global temperatures have risen over 1.3ºC, and the Living Planet Index, which tracks changes in 31,821 populations across 5,230 species relative to 1970, has plummeted by an astonishing 70%. We are merely seven years from exhausting fresh water supplies by 40%, all while generating 453 million more tonnes of plastic compared to the time of Camp Century's construction, at a cost of 160 liters of water per kilogram of plastic produced.

The Greenland ice sheet stands as both a witness and prophet of a world in chaotic transition. The consequences, once predicted for 2050, are already upon us.

Megafires, landslides, droughts, and vanishing glaciers are all signs that the anticipated mega-scale impacts are arriving much sooner than expected. Solid scientific consensus warns that up to a billion people could perish from climate-related disasters in the next century, marking it as potentially the greatest tragedy in human history.

Hiding beneath the ice may soon become impossible, with Greenland reflecting on a time 400,000 years ago when it was iceless, while simultaneously flooding coastlines around the world.

Perhaps, in that moment, we will finally decide to rise above the surface.

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