Our specific research projects are ever-changing, but these are some of the general topics we focus on.

The logo for the NSF Center, COLDEX.

COLDEX is an NSF Science and Technology Center, formed in 2021, that is in search of the oldest ice in Antarctica. COLDEX has two main scientific goals: to extend the the continuous ice core record to at least 1.5 million years and to explore the record of much older, discontinuous ice core records around the Antarctic ice sheet margin. OSU Ice Core Lab founder Ed Brook is the lead PI for COLDEX and the current director.

COLDEX

A piece of ice held up, with visible ancient air bubbles trapped within.

We perform analyses on the air content trapped within ice core bubbles to learn about past climates. This includes, but is not limited to, measurements of CH4, CO2, and atmospheric isotopes, such as 15N.

Laboratory Sample Analysis

A Ph.D. student standing by a complex mechanism designed to extract noble gases.

Achieving the analytical capabilities for our wide array of ice core measurements requires substantial method development in the lab. Each of our sample lines needs to be meticulously built and tested.

Method Development

A figure detailing ANtarctic and Greenland d18O over the past 50 thousand years.
A figure detailing the age anomaly between different ice core layer counts, with values as high as 400 years.

As a lab, we also complete wide-ranging climate model analysis, thinking about mechanisms that drive past climate variability and abrupt climate change recorded in polar ice cores. Additionally, we perform chronology development, such as layer counting, to improve age estimates of ice core records.

Climate Model and Statistical Analysis