University of Minnesota researcher helps collect Antarctic ice samples possibly millions of years old

A University of Minnesota researcher is back home after a months-long journey to the end of the earth, collecting ice samples that are likely millions of years old.

"Not a day goes by where I don't think about the experience," recalls Martin Froger Silva.

For months, he woke up in a tent in the vastness of an Antarctic glacier. Even during that continent's summer months, temperatures can drop as low as -45°, with winds howling more than 50 miles per hour. 

"It's 24-hour sunlight, extreme cold, extreme wind," he says.

Now home in St. Paul, Froger Silva endured two months of those extreme conditions. He's a part of a National Science Foundation expedition called COLDEX, or the Center for Oldest Ice Exploration. 

"Our mission, it's kind of in the name, is to find and analyze and study and learn from the world's oldest ice," he said. "The oldest ice core samples we've collected are 6 million years old. And the main purpose is to understand Earth's climate history."

It's a snapshot of the past to help us better understand the present and future climate. Along with using ground radar to learn the ice depth and movement, they're also analyzing the gases that are trapped frozen in the bubbles below. In one case -- more than three and a half football fields deep!

"It took a lot of work and a lot of time, but we did it," Froger Silva said. "We collected 20,000 pounds of ice core samples this year, which are now making their way back home for analysis."

Once they make it to the United States by ship, the ice cores will be stored and sent to institutions across the country and world, where scientists will work on a number of projects to better understand the history of our planet. 

"And it's a great reminder of the incredible things that we can do when we get together to work on things that we're passionate about," he said.