Ice Core Paleoclimatology Group's World Firsts

First ice core record of the ‘Little Ice Age’ in the Tropics 

Discovery of oldest ice outside the Polar Regions  

First Ice core records of the Asian and South American Monsoons 

First discovery of glacial stage ice (more than 20,000 years old) in the Tropics 

Documenting abrupt climate changes in ice cores (e.g., the 5,200 and 4,200 year events) 

Establishing the Third Pole Environment Program in 2009 with Co-Chairs from Germany and China 

Documenting the rise and fall of Andean cultures with climate change 

Documenting the loss of high mountain glacier archives around the world 

Developing and deploying the first solar-powered drill 

Connecting climate change to human behavior  

First ice core records from the tropical Andes, the Tibetan plateau and Franz Josef Land (Russian Arctic) and the only ice recovered from Mt. Kilimanjaro and Papua, Indonesia 

Only global collection of ice cores recovered from 16 countries in addition to Antarctica and Greenland 

Documentation of high elevation enrichment of stable isotopes indicating more rapidly rising temperatures at high elevations in the low latitudes 

Documentation of the loss of ice on Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa 

Documentation of the loss of ice in the tropical Andes of Peru 

Documentation of the loss of ice across the Third Pole and Himalayan regions in collaboration with our Chinese colleagues at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research 

Documentation of recent ice loss in Papua, Indonesia 

First accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) carbon-14 dating of low-latitude, high elevation ice cores 

Discovery of insects preserved in high elevation ice cores 

Tropical ice cores document major droughts in the mid-14th and late-18th centuries linked to El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability and societal disruptions 

First tropical pollen records from ice cores 

First documentation of major El Niño-like events impacting both sides of the Pacific Basin 

Ice core documentation of El Niño via isotopes and accumulation 

First ice core records from the Tropics beginning in 1974 

Ice core evidence for asynchronous glaciation 

First studies of bacteria and viruses in low latitude ice cores: Classification of bacteria from polar and non-polar glacial ice 

Kilimanjaro ice core records: Evidence of Holocene climate change in tropical Africa 

A high-resolution millennial record of the South Asian Monsoon from Himalayan ice cores 

A 25,000-year tropical climate history from Bolivian ice cores 

Late Glacial Stage and Holocene tropical ice core records from Huascarán, Peru 

Reconstructing the paleo El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) records from tropical and subtropical ice cores 

Recent warming: Ice core evidence from tropical glaciers with emphasis on Central Asia 

Tropical climate instability: The last glacial cycle from a Qinghai-Tibetan ice core 

First documentation of ice loss from the top down on the glaciers of Kilimanjaro in Africa and Naimona’nyi in southern Tibet