Canadian Ice Core Lab (CICL)

As Canada’s only dedicated ice core laboratory and archive, the Canadian Ice Core Lab (CICL) is a leader in shallow and intermediate depth ice core recovery, ice core imaging and processing, and liquid chemistry ice core analysis. CICL personnel have the unique combination of alpine and polar field experience, as well as scientific expertise in glaciology, chemistry, and climate systems that is required to effectively recover ice cores from some of the harshest places on Earth. Our ice core collection covers a large region of the Eastern Canadian high Arctic, and over the next few years will grow to include ice cores from the Western Canadian high Arctic, as well as alpine regions of the Yukon and Canadian Rockies. A digital archive is currently being built to accompany our physical ice core collection. Imaging ice cores allows us to ask new scientific questions and re-examine markers in ice without the presence of the original ice core sample. Our extensive clean ice core cutting and processing capabilities allow for high precision and custom requirements in sample preparation. Isotope, major ion, and particle size analysis provide insight into past climates and events, while complementing analyses performed through scientific collaborations.