When the facility opened in 1993, it took six months for the air conditioner to bring the temperature down to the frigid requirements. Proper temperature is not the only key to preserving the ice cores. Cravens and his staff also worry about sublimation, the direct transition of solid ice to gaseous water vapor, skipping the liquid phase. Low air humidity encourages sublimation. That's what happens when ice cubes shrink in your refrigerator, Cravens says.
Sublimation can whittle away an ice core.
To combat it, the lab wraps all cores in plastic to protect them from the dry air in the freezer. This is interesting stuff. But it's cutable. I'd be tempted to give a little more space to the climate change part of this the why we should care issue. Cravens pullED down a foot-long section of ice as he showed visitors around the lab recently.