Our cold storage building contains two 30' by 35' freezer compartments with rack-type storage units maintained at -30°F (-34.5°C) and -25°F (-32°C) that can hold about 3,000 meters of frozen ice cores. Each freezer compartment has three compressors, each of which is capable of maintaining the selected temperature for the freezer. Ice core processing such as the cutting and preparation of samples for physical and chemical analyses as well as other measurements including stratigraphy and structural studies can be conducted in one of the three cold labs (22°F'; -5.6°C) attached to one of the freezer compartments (-30°F; -34.5°C). In the event of an electrical failure, a transfer switch puts the entire load on a gas-powered generator plumbed directly into the Columbia Gas line supporting the building. The generator is checked and run once a month.it.