THE ANTARCTIC SIMULATOR

The University of Milano-Bicocca, and the Departement of Earth and Environmental Sciences have realized an integrated laboratory facilities with controlled atmosphere for simulate the mean arctic and antarctic environmental conditions. Cold rooms till -50°C at very clean environmental conditions, are used for drive experiments on ice and snow.

News:

The EuroCold lab at the 73^ ed. of Trento Film Festival with the docufilm "L'unico supersite"

On Friday, May 2nd in Trento, on the occasion of the 73rd edition of the Trento Film Festival, the documentary film "L'unico supersite" by Stefano Floreani, Giuseppe Tringali and Mario Veluscek was presented. The film talks about the Montasio glacier, the only survivor in the Eastern Alps, and how climate change has repercussions on the cryosphere and the mountain world. Valter Maggi and Claudio Artoni took part in the film, bringing important contributions. There were also beautiful images of ice cores inside the cold rooms of our laboratory. The full theater during the screening and the copious applause demonstrate the beauty and success of the film.

Ghiacciai dentro

Venerdì 28 marzo 2025 presso l'Università Milano-Bicocca si terrà un grande evento organizzato dal gruppo di ricerca dell'EuroCold Lab, dal Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Ambiente e della Terra e dal Comitato Glaciologico Italiano, in occasione dell'anno interrnazionale per la protezione dei ghiacciai.

L'appuntamento è alle ore 9:00 in Aula Marchetti (piano terra) dell'Edificio U1 Atlas "Scienze Ambientali" in Piazza della Scienza 1.
Durante la mattina numerosi ricercatori da tutta Italia illustreranno le loro importanti ricerche sui ghiacciai del mondo.

L'evento è SOLD OUT! Grazie a tutti quelli che si sono registrati!

Orizzonti di ricerca: il podcast dell'Università Milano - Bicocca

L'Universtà Milano - Bicocca lancia il podcast "Orizzonti di ricerca": alla scoperta del pianeta attraverso la scienza. Il podcast si articola in 5 episodi dall'Antartide alle Maldive, passando per Nepal, Perù, Rwanda.

L'EuroCold lab e le ricerche polari sono state protagoniste della seconda puntata del pocast con una bella intervista a Valter Maggi e Claudio Artoni.

Per ascoltare le puntate, clicca qui.

"Italia chiama Artico"

On Tuesday 25th February 2025 the festival "Italia chiama Artico" took place in Bologna. Organized by the Osservatorio Artico, the day was full of interesting round tables that covered topics from geopolitics to the new frontiers of scientific research.

A representation of Bicocca and EuroCold Lab, composed by Valter Maggi and Claudio Artoni, was present to discuss these important current issues.

New podcast on avalanches and climate change

Our snow scientist and technical manager Claudio Artoni was interviewed for the podcast "Un quarto d'ora per acclimatarsi" by L'Altra Montagna. Claudio spoke about the relationship that snow and avalanches have with climate change, about his work and the study of snow crystals. You can listen to it here:

Spotify "Studiare e spiegare le valanghe ai tempi del cambiamento climatico"

Speaker "Studiare e spiegare le valanghe ai tempi del cambiamento climatico"

Final event of the "Carovana dei ghiacciai 2024" for the International Mountain Day

On Wednesday 11th December 2024, on the occasion of International Mountain Day, the glaciology group of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences of the University of Milan - Bicocca and Legambiente organized a morning of talks and presentations on the glaciers of the Alps and on climate change. Great success due to the quality of the contents presented and the large audience. If you missed the event, you can watch it again here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4K5fk92-Ds

The EuroCold Lab is present at Focus Live 2024

From Friday 8h to Sunday 10th November 2024, the EuroCold Lab was present at the event Focus Live 2024 at Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia of Milan. Visitors had the opportunity to live a polar experience by listening to the stories of our researchers and being able to touch the instruments used during the expeditions.

Moreover prof. Valter Maggi did keynote presentation Sunday 10th at 10:45 am on ice core and paleoclimate with a lot of interest in the pubblic.

If you missed the event, you can read the article on Focus Live.

Today the EuroCold Lab is in "La Settimana Enigmistica"

Today September 12th the EuroCold lab is present in the page "Non tutti sanno che..." of the "La Settimana Enigmistica".

Lecture by Prof. Siwan Davies on volcanic ash and ice cores

Professor Siwan Davies from the Prifysgol Abertawe Swansea University visited the EuroCold Lab. (June 25th 2024) within the TAITH program funded by the Welsh government and gave an amazing lecture about her enhancing studies on volcanic ash and ice cores.
She is an expert in tephrochronology, Quaternary Science and paleo-environmental change and abrupt and rapid climatic changes and her research group focuses on environmental variability throughout the Quaternary and the effects of future climatic change.

This awesome day was a first step towards future collaborations also within the Beyond EPICA consortium.

Thank you Siwan!

5th June 2024 Environment Day

With this beautiful image taken by our researchers on the Austre Broggerbreen glacier in Svalbard Islands we want to remind the importance of the cryosphere in the Earth ecosystem, as an archive of climate history, a reservoir of fresh water and a sentinel of the climate change.

POLAS expedition in Arctic

Our researchers have just returned from an Arctic expedition to the CNR-ISP Italian base "Dirigibile Italia" in Ny-Alesund, Svalbard Islands. During this month, researchers from the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences of the University of Milano-Bicocca and the Department of Physics of the University of Milano collaborated on the POLAS research project to carry out studies on the mineral dust contained in the snowpack, about the crystallography of snow and how sunlight penetrates the snowpack. Several glaciers on the island of Spitsbergen were sampled although the high temperatures and rain, abnormal for the season, made operations difficult. The collected samples will reach the EuroCold Lab. in the coming months and will be analyzed with the most advanced particulate measurement techniques. The data collected by the snow probes are already fed to the computers to create the necessary models and interpretations.

Beyond EPICA Science Meeting 2024

Associate professor Barbara Delmonte was involved in three days of scientific updates and planning for the years to come on the Beyond EPICA Scientific Project.

Bicocca svelata: giornata aperta tra
le ricerche ed i laboratori dell'università

Il 20 marzo 2024 i ricercatori del Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Ambiente e della Terra racconteranno le proprie ricerche, proporranno attività interattive per far comprendere principi scientifici complessi e apriranno le porte ai laboratori per far conoscere e illustrare le attività svolte.
Il sistema di laboratori EuroCold Lab sarà aperto alle visite dalle ore 15:00 alle 17:00 con slot per le visite giudate ogni 20 minuti. Potrete scoprire la ricerca polare osservando le carote di ghiaccio, i campioni di neve e provando le rigide temperature delle nostre camere fredde. Verrete accompagnati nel mondo dei ghiacci dai nostri ricercatori che potranno raccontarvi le loro ricerche in un mix di scienza e curiosità.
Per prenotare la visita: prenotazioni visite laboratori

27th Alpine Glaciology Meeting

Our researchers are present at the 27th AGM in Grenoble 14th-15th March 2024 with a talk and a poster.

High-resolution hyperspectral microphysical and mineralogical analyses of the ADA270 Adamello ice core.
Quantitative and fast snowpack stratigraphy: the Snow Light Optical ProbE (SLOPE)

Dissemination of the ClimADA project

ClimADA is not only scientific research, we're involved also in the dissemination of the results and of the new methodologies used in the study of the Adamello ice cores. Like an open book on the climate of our Alps we talk about the climate changes taking place and how the cryosphere reacts to these important transformations.

During the last week Barbara Delmonte was involved in the preview of the documentary "La voce dei ghiacciai" directed by Giacomo Andalò by the Servizio Glaciologico Lombardo (SGL) and Claudio Artoni was involved in one morning of conferences to the students of ISS Falcone Righi.

Click here to watch the docu-film "La voce dei ghiacciai" and click here to learn more about our last conference at the ISS Falcone-Righi (Corsico).
Photo credit: "Giovani fotografi" IIS Falcone-Righi

The Alpine Snow Survey Operations

After the recent Alpine snowfalls, a team of researchers and snow professionals performed some stratigraphic profiles to evaluate the properties and the stability of the new snow cover. The analysis was conducted through classical stratigraphy and through the new Snow Laser Optical Probe (SLOPE) which provides quantitative stratigraphy in just a few minutes.

To learn more about this project, visit the dedicated page.

Workshop on the ClimADA project

Today Parco dell'Adamello and Fondazione Lombardia per l'Ambiente organized a workshop on the ClimADA project focused on the Adamello Glacier. The event will the at 6:00 pm and will be at the Sala Cevedale, UNIMONT Edolo (Bs).

There's also the possibility to participate in streaming registering at this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAqd-CvrzsqHNQKdhd17x4q5cKMC-NYnQiQ

National Antarctic Research Programme (PNRA) Workshop 2023

From 5th to 6th December 2023, Rome hosted the workshop of the National Antarctic Research Programme "Una visione del futuro: verso una programmazione pluriennale del PNRA". Many researchers from all over Italy, including two representatives of the EuroCold Lab., participated to bring new ideas on the next scientific research that will take place in Antarctica.

SISC2023: Mission Adaptation!

During the 11th Annual Conference of the Italian Society for Climate Sciences (22-24th Novembre) in Milan, the EuroCold Lab. was present with two contributions. Deborah Fiorini presented a poster on a multi-proxy approach for the analysis of the ice cores of the Adamello Glacier. Claudio Artoni presented a talk on the ClimADA project and on the ongoing analysis on the Adamello Glacier ice cores.

We're present at the environmental sustainability education fair 2023

The Environmental Sustainability Education Fair, which is taking place in Piazza Città di Lombardia 1 from October 24 to October 26 2023, organized by the Foundation Lombardia per l'Ambiente (FLA) with the General Directorate for Environment and Climate of the Lombardy Region and ARPA Lombardia, saw the presence of the EuroCold laboratory with the display of one of the ice cores extracted from the Adamello glacier for the ClimADA project.
Serena Lagorio, Deborah Fiorini and Claudio Artoni are waiting to show you the ice core and the climate archive contained in the largest glacier in Italy.
The event will continue with many initiatives on sustainability dedicated to the future generations.

ISSW2023 in Bend, OR:
snow sciences in a merging of theory and practice

Claudio Artoni is now attending the International Snow Science Workshop ISSW2023 in Bend, Oregon. This is the biggest and most important conference regarding the snow sciences where snow professionals, educators, researchers and manufacturers meet in a merging of theory and practice.
Claudio is presenting two posters, one on an integrated study on the Rutor Glacier in Aosta Valley and another one on the importance of the optical and microphysical properties of dust and how these can affect the stability of the snowpack.
Claudio has also been selected as one of the winner of the American Avalanche Association (A3) full-scholarship to attend this event.
You can find the pubblished proceedings here:

Falling Walls Lab Italy:
EuroCold Lab. was present

A truly international pitch competition to promote the exceptional ideas of new generations and connect scientists and entrepreneurs globally: this is Falling Walls Lab. Yesterday 27th September, Claudio Artoni presented his pitch on breaking the walls of snow sciences presenting an innovative snow probe in the frame of OPTICE. This new tool have the possibility to make a quantitative analysis of the snowpack layers in a short time thus increasing operator safety.

Climate, Earth and Humans:
a sustainable approach

Today, 26th September 2023, the entire research group of the EuroCold Lab. is present at the Department of Earth and Evironmental Sciences' (DISAT) day. Valter Maggi illustrated the research activities of the glaciological team with a focus on the cold laboratories. The congress was the opportunity to discover all the important research topics performed in the frame of the DISAT.

To discover the program of the day visit the congress page.

Camera on the Rutor glacier

Great news from the Rutor glacier in Aosta Valley!

Claudio Artoni and Marco Potenza reached Colle del Rutor where 2 years ago they installed a camera for the OPTICE project.
The camera was in excellent conditions, it seemed that wind, snow, rain and sun hadn’t affected the solar panel and the chassis.
In fact, after having removed it and having verified its functioning, the researchers founded that it had worked continuously from the day of installation to today, taking two photos a day.
Now an ongoing elaboration work is up to the members of the OPTICE project to create a time lapse on the state of the glacier and to see the trend of snowfalls over the last two years.

To know more about the project visit the OPTICE website.

Drilling firn cores in Antarctica

"Within the MIMIC project of the PNRA (Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide) volcanologists of the INGV (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia), biologists of the CNR-ISP (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto di Scienze Polari) and glaciologists of EuroCold Lab. of the Milano-Bicocca University carried out two expeditions in which volcanic rocks from the ice-caves were sampled together with samples for biological studies in areas of high emission of hot gasses and firn cores from the summit and slopes of Melbourne and Rittmann volcanoes."

Here you can read the full article on the project written by Paola Del Carlo and pubblished on the "Geologicamente" magazine by the SGI (Società Geologica Italiana).

Form the EuroCold Lab., Valter Maggi and Claudio Artoni participated respectively at the 37th and 38th expeditions in Antarctica for this project and collected many firn cores from the caldera and volcanic slopes.

Climbing for Climate 5th edition: Bicocca was there

The event Climbing for Climate (30-31 July 2023), organized by the University of Brescia, the Universities of the RUS (Rete delle Università per lo Sviluppo sostenibile), Italian Alpine Club, Italian Glaciological Committee and Legambiente, involved many scientists and researchers from as many Italian universities in a two-days hiking to reach the Adamello glacier.
The aim of the event is to monitor the melting of glaciers and launch an appeal to citizens and institutions for actions against the climate change.
For the University of Milano-Bicocca, Deborah Fiorini and Claudio Artoni hiked togheter with other researchers bringing the last news about the ClimADA project (ice core from the Adamello glacier) while Valter Maggi made a speach at the press conference regarding the glaciers retreat.

Hai mai letto un libro di ghiaccio?

Sei uno/a studente/ssa o un/a professore/ssa di scuola secondaria superiore e sei interessato/a a indagare con la tua classe i meccanismi del passato del nostro pianeta e dei cambiamenti climatici, con un occhio rivolto al futuro? Vuoi leggere il racconto narrato dai ghiacciai, archivi climatici in fusione?

Il progetto di orientamento "Hai mai letto un libro di ghiaccio" fa per te. In un modulo di 5 ore, avrai la possibilità di conoscere le tecniche di indagine utilizzate nel nostro laboratorio e toccare con mano campioni di neve e ghiaccio provenienti dall'Antartide, dall'Artico e dalle nostre Alpi.

Per ulteriori informazioni e per prenotare la tua esperienza, visita la pagina del progetto.

"Ghiaccio sottile", RaiPlay Sound Podcast

"Ghiaccio Sottile", the podcast available on RaiPlay Sound, aims to be a scientific, cultural and geographical exploration journey, to tell the story of the melting glaciers in eight episodes. Davide S. Sapienza journalist, author of the texts, together with Lorenzo Pavolini, narrator of the podcast, in over a year of work and expeditions with the protagonists of the ice, invite us to reflect on the continuous transformation of the climate on our planet.

A journey also inside the EuroCold Lab. where Valter Maggi and Claudio Artoni tell us about the polar expeditions and the scintific work inside the laboratories facility.

To listen the podcast

Bicocca Polar Day

To celebrate the 10th birthday of the EuroCold Lab and the 30 years of Polar Sciences in Bicocca, we are glad to invite you at the

Bicocca Polar Day: June 7th 2023 Aula Marchetti, U1 Bulding, Piazza della Scienza 1, Milano.

During the day many researchers and professors will present their studies and there will be the possibility to chat with our researchers drinking a coffee.

Turing the afternoon many guided tours of the lab will be organized with the unique opportunity to see and discover Arctic and Antarctic ice cores.

More information can be found here or you can write an email at: eurocold@unimib.it

THE EVENT IS SOLD OUT!

ATTENTION: due to the high number of requests to participate and the reduced capacity of the room, we have decided to create an online webinar. To join use this Webex link

Climate change, glaciers and snow

Saturday 18th March 2023 our chief professor Valter Maggi will be involved in the congress "Climate change and lombardy mountains" from 9:30 to 12:30 at the Palamonti of Bergamo (via Pizzo della Presolana 15, Bergamo).
This event can also be seen on the YouTube channel of CAI Lombardia in Live streaming

Tuesday 21st March 2023 our technical manager Claudio Artoni will present a conference on the relations between climate change and snow, from 21:00 at CAI Milano (via Duccio di Boninsegna 21/23, Milano)

ClimADA meeting 2022

Fondazione Lombardia per l'Ambiente (lead partners) in collaboration with Fondazione Cariplo (financier of the project) has organized the event: "The impact of climate change on Alpine glaciers: the case of Adamello", with the aim to analyze the results of the first year of work of ClimADA project.

With the authoritative patronage of the Italian Glaciological Committee and the Italian Society of Climate Sciences, the appointment on Thursday 1 December brought together the project partners, the institutions involved and the protagonists of this important adventure.

Conference proceedings can be found here

Environmental sustainability education fair

We are present at the Environmental Sustainability Education Fair which is taking place in Piazza Città di Lombardia 1 from October 18 to 21 2022, organized by the Foundation Lombardia per l'Ambiente (FLA) with the General Directorate for Environment and Climate of the Lombardy Region and ARPA Lombardia.

Workshops, contests and the opportunity to see a portion of ice core extracted from the Adamello glacier as part of the ClimADA project await you. The event will continue until Friday with many initiatives on sustainability dedicated to future generations.

To discover the program:

Programma Fiera dell'educazione alla sostenibilità ambientale

Pianeta 2030: acting for climate

Interview with Claudio Artoni, techincal manager of the EuroCold lab and Earth scientist and Michela Rovelli of Corriere della Sera for the world environment day on June 6th 2022 on the interdisciplinary project OPTICE which aims to investigate the optical properties of mineral dust in snow and ice cores to better understand climate change.

Link al video

“ClimADA”, the climate of the last centuries in the Adamello Glacier

ClimADA starts, the second phase of the project which in April 2021 allowed the extraction of 224 meters of ice from the Adamello Glacier, thanks to an operation never before successful in the entire Alpine arc. In fact, the series of analyzes aimed at reconstructing the climatic and environmental conditions of the central part of the Alps has begun in the Bicocca EuroCOLD laboratories, which will allow us to go back about 1000 years.

Comunicato stampa UNIMIB

ClimADA Official Website

Ice core drilling progression on

Adamello Glacier

The drilling end at -225 m depth, after find some sones in the ice core. It is too dangerous for the drilling system to continue. Great shot for the laboratory collaboration and for the ADA270 project.

Drilling Start at Mandrone Glacier

The 8th of April 2021, on the Pian di Neve, the accumulation area of the Adamello Glacier (Adamello Group, Brescia, Italy) start the drilling activities to reach the bedrock at 270 m below the surface.

Headed by Regione Lombardia and including many other regional entities and private sponsors, the University of Milano-Bicocca chair the scientific activity in collaboration with Paul Scherer Institute and The Coherentia spin-up to realize the drilling activities, collect the ice cores and monitoring the evolution of the glacier.

The bottom of the glacier can preserve ice that can 1 thousand year old, permitting to reconstruct the variability of he regional climate and history of environment of the last millennium.

World Meteorological Organization - Bulletin 69(2) 2020

Covid-19 emission impact

The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) provides daily analyses of hourly concentrations of regulatory air pollutants. These can serve as “ground truth” to assess quantitatively, and in more details, the changes in concentrations identified by satellites and attributed to the effects of COVID-19 measures across the world. In figure the emissions in January and March 2020 along the Po Plain in Northern Italy.

Commentary on Science

The recent EuroCold Lab collaboration paper, publish on Nature Communication, create strong interest on the scienific community as demontrate the news on Science journal.

Researchers have discovered a common martian mineral deep within an ice core from Antarctica. The find suggests the mineral—a brittle, yellowbrown substance known as jarosite—was forged the same way on both Earth and Mars: from dust trapped within ancient ice deposits. It also reveals how important these glaciers were on the Red Planet: Not only did they carve valleys, the researchers say, but they also helped create the very stuff Mars is made of.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/01/substance-found-antarctic-ice-may-solve-martian-mystery

From Antarctica to Mars

On Nature Communication the first result comparing Antartic formations of mineral in deep Antarctic glacier and the possible glacier effects on Mars.

Many interpretations have been proposed to explain the presence of jarosite within Martian surficial sediments, including the possibility that it precipitated within paleo-ice deposits owing to englacial weathering of dust. However, until now a similar geochemical process was not observed on Earth nor in other planetary settings. We report a multi-analytical indication of jarosite formation within deep ice. Below 1000 m depth, jarosite crystals adhering on residual silica-rich particles have been identified in the Talos Dome ice core (East Antarctica) and interpreted as products of weathering involving aeolian dust and acidic atmospheric aerosols. The progressive increase of ice metamorphism and re-crystallization with depth, favours the relocation and concentration of dust and the formation of acidic brines in isolated environments, allowing chemical reactions and mineral neo-formation to occur. This is the first described englacial diagenetic mechanism occurring in deep Antarctic ice and supports the ice-weathering model for jarosite formation on Mars, highlighting the geologic importance of paleo ice-related processes on this planet. Additional implications concern the preservation of dust-related signals in deep ice cores with respect to paleoclimatic reconstructions and the englacial history of meteorites from Antarctic blue ice fields.

Baccolo, G., Delmonte, B., Niles, P.B. et al. Jarosite formation in deep Antarctic ice provides a window into acidic, water-limited weathering on Mars. Nat Commun 12, 436 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20705-z

A pilot study of eDNA metabarcoding to estimate plant biodiversity by an alpine glacier core (Adamello glacier, North Italy)

Ice Core, DNA and Biodiversity on the Alps

Current biodiversity loss is a major concern and thus biodiversity assessment of modern ecosystems is compelling and needs to be contextualized on a longer timescale. In this ice core study, a collaboration between Fondazione Mach (Italy) , Uppsala Univerity (Sweden), MUSE Trento (Italy) and Eurocold Lab, University of Milano Bicocca (Italy), we tested, for the first time, the potential of HTS to estimate plant biodiversity archived in the surface layers of a temperate alpine glacier, amplifying the trnL barcode for vascular plants from eDNA of firn samples. Results highlighted the presence of pollen and plant remains within the distinct layers of snow, firn and ice. DNA metabarcoding described distinct plant species composition among the different samples, with a broad taxonomic representation of the biodiversity of the catchment area and a high-ranking resolution. New knowledge on climate and plant biodiversity changes of large catchment areas can be obtained by this novel approach, relevant for future estimates of climate change effects.

A pilot study of eDNA metabarcoding to estimate plant biodiversity by an alpine glacier core (Adamello glacier, North Italy)

Claudio Varotto, Massimo Pindo, Elena Bertoni, Christian Casarotto, Federica Camin, Matteo Girardi, Valter Maggi & Antonella Cristofori

Scientific Reports, 11, article 1208 (2021)

SEM images of dust grains extracted from TALDICE sections at 1,560 m depth (a, c, d, f) and 1534 m depth (b, e). 110 Scale bar: 1 μm.

https://eartharxiv.org/repository/view/233/

Department of Environmental and Earth Sciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy; INFN, section of Milano-Bicocca, Italy; NASA Johnson Space Center, USA; Diamond Light Source, UK; Department of Physical, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Siena, Italy; Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, INFN, Italy; Rome International Center for Materials Science - Superstripes, Italy; Department of Earth Sciences, Hong Kong; Jacobs, NASA Johnson Space Center, USA; Department of Science, University Roma Tre, Italy.

A window on Mars water weathering

Many interpretations have been proposed to explain the presence of jarosite within Martian surficial sediments, including the possibility that it precipitated within paleo-ice deposits owing to englacial weathering of dust. But until now a similar mechanism was not observed on Earth nor in other planetary settings. We report the first multi-analytical indication of jarosite formation within deep ice. Below 1000 m depth, jarosite crystals adhering on residual silica-rich particles have been identified in the Talos Dome ice core (East Antarctica) and interpreted as products of weathering involving aeolian mineral dust and acidic atmospheric aerosols. It supports the ice-weathering model for jarosite formation on Mars, highlighting the geologic importance of paleo ice-related processes on this planet. Additional implications concern the preservation of dust-related signals in deep ice cores with respect to paleoclimatic reconstructions and the englacial history of meteorites from Antarctic blue ice fields.

Local fires help to understand how fast ecosystems respond to abrupt glacial climate change

A 3800 year-long radiocarbon-dated and highly-resolved palaeoecological record from Lake Fimon (N-Italy) served to investigate the effects of potential teleconnections between North Atlantic and mid-to-low latitudes at the transition from Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 to 2. The high median time-resolution of 58 years allows the identification of five abrupt event-boundaries (i.e., main forest expansion and decline excursions) synchronous with the sharp stadial/interstadial (GS/GI) transitions within dating uncertainties. During Heinrich Stadial 3 (HS 3) we reconstruct more open and dry conditions, compared to the other GS, with a dominant regional scale fire signal. Linkages between local fires and climate-driven fuel changes resulted in high-magnitude fire peaks close to GI/GS boundaries, even exacerbated by local peatland conditions. WThe authorse hypothesise that this signal, broadly resembling that of other mid-latitudes proxies, may be attributed to the southward shift of the Northern Hemisphere storm tracks and the associated delayed iceberg discharge events as documented during other HS.

Publish on open access Nature Scientific Report

East Antarctic International Ice Sheet Traverse

Una 'traversa' sul plateau in Antartide per stimare l'aumento del livelo dei mari. Dal 5 dicembre 2019 al 25 gennaio 2020, una squadra composta da scienziati francesi del Cnrs, dell'Università Grenoble Alpes e da scienziati italiani del Cnr e dell'Ingv percorrerà 1318 km tra andata e ritorno in mezzo al plateau dell'Antartide, su una traversa organizzata dall'Istituto Polare Francese (Ipev) con la collaborazione del Programma nazionale di ricerche in Antartide (Pnra). Tra i ricercatori italiani sarà presente in campo Andrea Spolaor del CNR-ISP.

French, Italian and Australian scientists unite their knowledge and capability to study the interior of the Antarctic plateau between the French-Italian Concordia station (75°S, 123° E), and the US South Pole station (90°S). The scientific objectives of EAIIST are to study the icy terrain of the Antarctic continent in its driest places.

BEYOND EPICA

The International project for retrieve 1.5 million year, from a continuous ice core to bedrock in Antarctica, covering the climate history of the Mid Pleistocene Transition and beyond.

Beyond Epica Teaser

Lezione Zero "Milano Bicocca:
la sostenibilità come obiettivo comune"

Una iniziativa di sensibilizzazione sui temi della sostenibilità realizzata in avvio di anno accademico in collaborazione con BASE – Bicocca Ambiente Società Economia, destinata a tutti i nostri studenti, indipendentemente dalla specifica area di formazione.

Nella lezione i temi verranno affrontati con un approccio trasversale, vista la rilevanza che tutte le discipline hanno in questo ambito.

Nel corso dell'evento verranno presentate le attività di didattica, di ricerca e terza missione che l'Università svolge sui temi della sostenibilità, e le tante iniziative in programma, per rendere la nostra comunità sempre più attenta all'ambiente e alla società che ci circondano.

GIORNATA MONDIALE

DELL'AMBIENTE 2020

GHIACCIO BOLLENTE: LA RICERCA SUI CAMBIAMENTI CLIMATICI DALLE ALPI AL POLO SUD.

COLLEGAMENTO LIVE CON LA STAZIONE CONCORDIA ANTARTIDE

In occasione della Giornata Mondiale dell’Ambiente 2020 Time for Nature, la Centrale dell’Acqua di Milano ha organizzato un evento speciale insieme ad ENEA, Università di Roma Tre, Università Statale di Milano, Università Milano Bicocca e Comitato Glaciologico Italiano.

L’incontro on line ha l’obiettivo di far conoscere la ricerca sui cambiamenti climatici attraverso lo studio della criosfera – la superfice terrestre coperta di ghiacci, ovvero l’acqua solida presente sul nostro pianeta - dando voce agli scienziati attivi sul campo.

La diretta sarà un’occasione unica per poter conoscere il lavoro e la vita quotidiana dei ricercatori del PNRA (Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide), attraverso un collegamento live con la base di ricerca Concordia che si trova nel continente di ghiaccio dell’Antartide.

Introdurranno e dialogheranno con i ricercatori in Antartide alcuni tra i più rilevanti glaciologi italiani: prof. Massimo Frezzotti(presidente del Comitato Glaciologico Italiano, Università Roma Tre), prof.ssa Guglielmina Diolaiuti (Università Statale di Milano), prof. Valter Maggi (Università Bicocca di Milano).

Situata a 75° 06′ sud, 123°21′est e distante circa 1200 km dalla costa, a 3230 m di altezza, la Stazione Concordia è stata costituita in sinergia da Italia e Francia. E’ costituita da due edifici comunicanti per mezzo di un passaggio coperto. Ogni cilindro si compone di tre piani, e ospita stanze da letto, laboratori scientifici e locali per i servizi fondamentali (ciclo dell’acqua, motore per la generazione di energia elettrica, calore….). Un medico specialista per le emergenze trascorre l’inverno a Concordia. La stazione Concordia ospita ricerche di astrofisica, sismologia, fisica dell’atmosfera e climatologia, biologia e medicina.

SEM images of dust grains extracted from TALDICE sections at 1,560 m depth (a, c, d, f) and 1534 m depth (b, e). Scale bar: 1 µm.

From Antarctica to Mars

New research from Eurocod Lab, in collaboration with INFN, Diamond Synchrotron, University of Roma 3 and NASA, for understanad the presence of some hydrate minerals on the Mars surface.

The article is now open source on Eartharxiv.org.

Baccolo et al., 2020. Jarosite formation in deep Antarctic ice provides a window into acidic, water-limited weathering on Mars

Many interpretations have been proposed to explain the presence of jarosite, a ferric-potassium hydroxide sulfate [KFe3+3(SO4)2(OH)6], within Martian surficial sediments, including the possibility that it precipitated within paleo-ice deposits owing to englacial weathering of dust. This is the first described englacial diagenetic mechanism occurring in TALDICE ice core, and supports the ice-weathering model for jarosite formation on Mars, highlighting the geologic importance of paleo ice-related processes on this planet.

East Greenland ice core dust record reveals timing of Greenland ice sheet advance and retreat

Accurate estimates of the past extent of the Greenland ice sheet provide critical constraints for ice sheet models used to determine Greenland’s response to climate forcing and contribution to global sea level.

Barbara Delmonte and Giovanni Baccolo from EUROCOLD LAB are two of the authors.

The link to the article is: https://go.nature.com/2puOzXt

Condensed Matter Researches in Cryospheric Science

Augusto Marcelli, Valter Maggi and Cunde Xiao (Eds.)

Pages: 144

Published: September 2019

ISBN 978-3-03921-323-8 (Pbk); ISBN 978-3-03921-324-5 (PDF)

https://doi.org/10.3390/books978-3-03921-324-5 (registering DOI)

https://www.mdpi.com/books/pdfview/book/1550 - Free Download

These results presented in this book highlights of some of the most recent advances in cryospheric studies, especially in relation to mineral dust and aerosols in the atmosphere. They evidence the complexity of chemical–physical processes involving solid compounds occurring in glacier, snow, and permafrost environments, covering different aspects such as spatial and temporal trends, as well as the impact of the mineral and non-mineral particles. These studies also demonstrate the need for collaborative interdisciplinary and transnational efforts to better understand the challenges of the present climatic and environmental research studies on Earth, but also out of the Earth’s system. The results show that recent advances in measurement techniques and source apportionment are powerful and sophisticated tools that may provide novel high-quality scientific information but represent only the first challenging step.

Perforabilità delle Alpi Italiane

Uno studio del DISAT che ha permesso di visualizzare la possibilità di un ghiacciaio Alpino di poter fornire registrazioni su come il clima e l'ambiente si è modificato.

A DISAT research that permit to show the ability of a glacier to be drilled for climate and envorponmetal studies.

USEFUL LINKS:

Deposito Nazionale dei Campioni Congelati - National Ice Core Storage Facility

Museo Nazionale dell'Antartide

Università di Milano Bicocca

Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Ambiente e della Terra - DISAT

Istituto di Scienze Polari - Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche

Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide

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THE ANTARCTIC SIMULATOR

News:

The EuroCold lab at the 73^ ed. of Trento Film Festival with the docufilm "L'unico supersite"

Ghiacciai dentro

Orizzonti di ricerca: il podcast dell'Università Milano - Bicocca

"Italia chiama Artico"

New podcast on avalanches and climate change

Final event of the "Carovana dei ghiacciai 2024" for the International Mountain Day

The EuroCold Lab is present at Focus Live 2024

Today the EuroCold Lab is in "La Settimana Enigmistica"

Lecture by Prof. Siwan Davies on volcanic ash and ice cores

5th June 2024 Environment Day

POLAS expedition in Arctic

Beyond EPICA Science Meeting 2024

Bicocca svelata: giornata aperta tra le ricerche ed i laboratori dell'università

27th Alpine Glaciology Meeting

Dissemination of the ClimADA project

The Alpine Snow Survey Operations

Workshop on the ClimADA project

National Antarctic Research Programme (PNRA) Workshop 2023

SISC2023: Mission Adaptation!

We're present at the environmental sustainability education fair 2023

ISSW2023 in Bend, OR: snow sciences in a merging of theory and practice

Falling Walls Lab Italy: EuroCold Lab. was present

Climate, Earth and Humans: a sustainable approach

Camera on the Rutor glacier

Drilling firn cores in Antarctica

Climbing for Climate 5th edition: Bicocca was there

Hai mai letto un libro di ghiaccio?

"Ghiaccio sottile", RaiPlay Sound Podcast

Bicocca Polar Day

Climate change, glaciers and snow

ClimADA meeting 2022

Environmental sustainability education fair

Pianeta 2030: acting for climate

“ClimADA”, the climate of the last centuries in the Adamello Glacier

Ice core drilling progression on

Adamello Glacier

The drilling end at -225 m depth, after find some sones in the ice core. It is too dangerous for the drilling system to continue. Great shot for the laboratory collaboration and for the ADA270 project.

Drilling Start at Mandrone Glacier

Covid-19 emission impact

Commentary on Science

The recent EuroCold Lab collaboration paper, publish on Nature Communication, create strong interest on the scienific community as demontrate the news on Science journal.

From Antarctica to Mars

On Nature Communication the first result comparing Antartic formations of mineral in deep Antarctic glacier and the possible glacier effects on Mars.

Ice Core, DNA and Biodiversity on the Alps

East Antarctic International Ice Sheet Traverse

Lezione Zero "Milano Bicocca: la sostenibilità come obiettivo comune"

GIORNATA MONDIALE

DELL'AMBIENTE 2020

GHIACCIO BOLLENTE: LA RICERCA SUI CAMBIAMENTI CLIMATICI DALLE ALPI AL POLO SUD.

COLLEGAMENTO LIVE CON LA STAZIONE CONCORDIA ANTARTIDE

In occasione della Giornata Mondiale dell’Ambiente 2020 Time for Nature, la Centrale dell’Acqua di Milano ha organizzato un evento speciale insieme ad ENEA, Università di Roma Tre, Università Statale di Milano, Università Milano Bicocca e Comitato Glaciologico Italiano.

L’incontro on line ha l’obiettivo di far conoscere la ricerca sui cambiamenti climatici attraverso lo studio della criosfera – la superfice terrestre coperta di ghiacci, ovvero l’acqua solida presente sul nostro pianeta - dando voce agli scienziati attivi sul campo.

La diretta sarà un’occasione unica per poter conoscere il lavoro e la vita quotidiana dei ricercatori del PNRA (Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide), attraverso un collegamento live con la base di ricerca Concordia che si trova nel continente di ghiaccio dell’Antartide.

From Antarctica to Mars

East Greenland ice core dust record reveals timing of Greenland ice sheet advance and retreat

Accurate estimates of the past extent of the Greenland ice sheet provide critical constraints for ice sheet models used to determine Greenland’s response to climate forcing and contribution to global sea level.

Barbara Delmonte and Giovanni Baccolo from EUROCOLD LAB are two of the authors.

The link to the article is: https://go.nature.com/2puOzXt

Condensed Matter Researches in Cryospheric Science

Perforabilità delle Alpi Italiane

Uno studio del DISAT che ha permesso di visualizzare la possibilità di un ghiacciaio Alpino di poter fornire registrazioni su come il clima e l'ambiente si è modificato.

A DISAT research that permit to show the ability of a glacier to be drilled for climate and envorponmetal studies.

USEFUL LINKS:

Bicocca svelata: giornata aperta tra
le ricerche ed i laboratori dell'università

ISSW2023 in Bend, OR:
snow sciences in a merging of theory and practice

Falling Walls Lab Italy:
EuroCold Lab. was present

Climate, Earth and Humans:
a sustainable approach

Lezione Zero "Milano Bicocca:
la sostenibilità come obiettivo comune"