With the core drilling and the extraction of 225 meters of ice from the Mandrone glacier, on the Adamello massif, the first phase of the ADA 270 project has been officially completed. The results were presented on Wednesday, July 14th at Palazzo Lombardia.
After the extraction, the second phase of the project will be devoted to the study and analysis of the data contained in the extracted ice and in the glacier surveys. The information obtained from the ice samples will be used to carry out research aimed at reconstructing the climatic history of Alpine ecosystems over the last few centuries and predicting their evolution over the next few decades, in order to safeguardi their delicate balance.
The core drilling was carried out over the course of 11 days in a camp at 3,200 meters above sea level, 24 hours a day in shifts of 3 hours each and 6 hours of rest, at a night temperature of 24 ° below zero. 4 fiber-optic cables were then installed in the hole in order to monitor the conditions of the glacier over time.
The insertion of fiber-optic cables inside the drilling – performed by the staff of Cohaerentia (a Politecnico di Milano spin-off) under the supervision of Maddalena Ferrario and Prof. Mario Martinelli of Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria – will allow to monitor the temporal evolution of the thermal and deformation profile of the glacier with a high spatial detail. Such a monitoring system has never been applied to an alpine glacier before and will be able to provide invaluable information, useful to geologists and glaciologists to predict the future evolution of the largest and deepest Italian glacier.
The project – supported by Regione Lombardia and coordinated by Fondazione Lombardia per l’Ambiente with the collaboration of Comunità Montana della Valcamonica and Land & Cogeo – brings together 16 institutional and private partners, with the involvement of Politecnico di Milano and Università di Milano-Bicocca.
In light of the success of ADA 270, Fondazione Lombardia per l’Ambiente has already announced the launch of the Climada project, dedicated to the reconstruction of the climatic and environmental history of the Adamello and the Central Alps in a regional / European context. The research concerning the optical fiber monitoring and the development of the geodynamic model of the glacier will be carried out in collaboration with the Politecnico di Milano and Cohaerentia.