Ice and the Sky Page #3

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We crawled along.

To hang in one more day,

to venture just a little farther...

...describe, understand,

describe, understand...

The quest for knowledge

kept us sane.

We had been gone 100 days.

We frantically sought a way

through the edges...

...of the trans-Antarctic

mountains barring our way to...

...the sea where

a ship awaited us.

Where we were,

the map said only "uncharted zone".

I and three companions scouted from

atop one of the surrounding peaks.

The climb did me good.

Like kids, we gave names

to the mountains.

Thus on maps of the Antarctic

there now appears a Mount Lorius.

Geographers, it seems,

took our game seriously.

Is it not the privilege

of explorers?

We went no further.

Both men and materials

were in such a state...

...that the US authorities

decided to repatriate us.

There was only one flight.

I forwent all my

personal possessions...

...in favor of my precious samples.

Paris, five months later.

The snows of Victoria Land speak.

The spectrometer plunges me

for the first time...

...into the invisible

world of atoms.

Snow contains two different

forms of hydrogen...

...heavy and light.

Snow that falls during

cold weather...

...contains a lot of

light hydrogen.

During warmer spells,

mostly the heavier form is found.

I discover that the ratio

between the two...

...precisely follows

temperature graduation.

The isotopic thermometer was born:

an amazing discovery.

Thereafter a spectrometric

analysis of a sample...

...of snow or ice would be enough

to obtain a precise reading...

...of the ambient temperature

the day the snow fell...

...even if it occurred

thousands of years ago.

The doors of past

weather were open.

I now had to find the deepest

and thus the oldest ice.

I wanted to know what

temperature it was formed at...

...in my quest to describe

how climate has evolved.

In 1962,

age 30 and finishing my thesis...

...I joined a small research team.

Ice is like a book...

...in which each new snowfall

adds another page to the story.

The earliest pages...

...are the deepest...

...and therefore the

most inaccessible.

Plunging into history

became an obsession.

I was determined to find a way

to bring to the surface...

...samples of ice lurking in these

abysses since the dawn of time.

In the Alps

we tried using drills...

...that had been designed

to pierce rock.

I worked with engineers

to develop a tool capable of...

...procuring samples

at very great depths.

It was trial and error.

The months went by.

Eventually a first prototype

was developed.

It was time to try it out

in the Antarctic ice.

Many improvements

were still required.

Claude Lorius, tomorrow you head

to Adlie Land for 16 months.

It wasn't an easy decision.

Eight years ago when

I began my career...

...it wasn't an issue for me.

Now that I'm married

with children...

...it's obviously an important

consideration.

I have always been torn

between my passion for my job...

...and my family life.

My 22 polar missions

are the equivalent of 10 years...

...spent in rudimentary

yet exhilarating conditions.

Over there, far from everyone...

...life is full of challenges

and fraternity.

I returned to Adlie Land

with great joy...

...recalling my spell in Charcot.

Eight years had gone by.

This time I was to be head

of the base for over a year.

It was a chance for me to try

out the new drilling equipment...

...on the glacier near the base,

before taking it...

...to the remote Antarctic plateau.

One evening after a difficult

drilling trial...

...we had a drink with a

newly-arrived Australian colleague.

Someone took some

ice from the corer...

...declaring that

the hard-won sample...

...deserved to end up

in our whisky.

The thermal shock released

the air trapped in the ice.

Air from the past.

Trapped in every layer of snow

is the memory...

...of the climate it was born in.

Tiny capsules of

atmospheric fossils...

...that have traversed time.

Why hadn't I thought of

it sooner?

An analysis of a series

of bubbles...

...taken from the whole

thickness of ice...

...would reveal the history of the

climate since the dawn of time.

It took another ten years of work

with Dominique, Jean, Liliane...

...and a number of other

researchers to prove it.

The next day, back at the base...

...I did not yet know

how important the idea was.

I was preparing for my second

nine-month spell in the Antarctic.

The year was 1964.

In 1965, I decided to put

all my efforts...

...into analyzing air bubbles,

alongside the other research...

...my team was working on.

Our journey into the

climate of the past...

...led me into ever more

costly missions.

These diplomatic efforts...

...exasperated me,

keeping me away from the Antarctic.

We also sought to date

our samples...

...by looking for dust

trapped in the snow.

Ice is a veritable natural

planetary clock.

Thus did we make an unexpected

and unsettling discovery.

During nuclear explosions...

...a certain number

of radioactive elements...

...are released into

the atmosphere.

Many return to earth around

the site of the explosion...

...but some are introduced

into the upper atmosphere...

...and travel around our globe.

These radioactive

elements in particular...

...are found in the layers of

snow at the polar regions.

We managed to date to the day

every nuclear explosion...

...in the era of atomic weapons.

There is in this

white wilderness...

...never colonized by any living

being, humanity's signature...

...the bloody scars of

Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

We raised the alarm.

The major powers immediately

declared a moratorium...

...on atmospheric nuclear testing.

But for me it was

a crushing discovery.

Was no place on Earth

safe from the influence of man?

An image of the finite and

fragile nature of our planet...

...suddenly loomed in an

extraordinarily violent way.

During the 1970s...

...we began to suspect

that human activity...

...might be disrupting

the climate.

But irrefutable proof was required.

The international cooperation...

...fostered during

Geophysical Year endured.

With the Americans...

...and now the Russians,

I set up a mission at Dome C.

In 1974...

...I was 42.

My team now boasted

thirty or so researchers.

Our work progressed slowly.

Each stage needed new expeditions

to remote areas of the Antarctic.

We stopped at the South Pole

to acclimatize.

Such emotion!

In 1911,

barely 60 years earlier...

...men had trekked here

for the first time...

...for the glory of

their countries.

Dome C, at an altitude

of 3,250 meters.

The annual mean temperature

is minus 51.7C.

An expanse of whiteness,

like an endless sea.

The air is so thin that just

a few steps leave you panting.

One of the most

inhospitable places...

...on earth...

except for glaciologists.

We spent two weeks

confirming aerial prospecting...

...suggesting the ice

was 3,500 meters thick...

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