Greenlandic ice crystals from the last warm period
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Greenlandic ice crystals from the last warm period

by Nicolas Stoll

Ice thin section under polarised light from a depth of 2620 m from the EastGRIP ice core. The section is 9 cm long and the very large crystals indicate the last warm period, i.e. the Eemian. EastGRIP drilled the first deep ice core through an ice stream and the crystal orientation, the different colours in the picture, yield important information about the internal deformation and the flow of ice.