PRESS RELEASE 28th September 2025

A new international expedition attempts to reveal and preserve the ice memory from the iconic Pamir glaciers in Central Asia, Tajikistan.
Pamir Expedition, Ice core, Tajikistan, Glaciers, Pamir Mountains
On the 24rd of September, an international team of scientists launched a new ice coring expedition on the Pamir Mountains - Tajikistan, part of the often called « Roof of the World ». At an altitude of 5.800m, on the Kon Chukurbashi ice cap, 13 scientists led by the Swiss-funded PAMIR Project and a team of Tajik partners are attempting the extraction of the first ever deep ice cores from the Pamirs.

Sampling the entire depth from the surface to the bedrock - +/- 105 m - is crucial as this region hosts some of the highest and oldest glaciers in the Northern Hemisphere. These silent giants located nearby the famous Fedchenko, have been storing, layer upon layer of snow, a unique climate archive from one of the world’s most vulnerable and data-scarce regions.

One of the two ice cores will be added to the Ice Memory heritage, enabling future generations of scientists to produce new knowledge after the disappearance of the glaciers.

The Ice Memory Sanctuary will be located in Antarctica, at the French-Italian Concordia station, jointly managed by PNRA and IPEV. The Ice Memory sanctuary sheltering these precious archives is a major milestone for the founders of the Ice Memory Foundation : CNRS, IRD, University Grenoble Alpes, Ca'Foscari University of Venice, CNR and PSI.

This expedition will provide a crucial contribution to the United Nations Decade of Action for Cryospheric Sciences.

Read the full press release (Download, 6 Mo)
Updated on  September 30, 2025