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A man pointing at blue snow.
Date Taken:
December 28, 2015
Photograph By:
Elaine Hood, NSF
License Type:
Public Domain

Scientist Howard Conway, University of Washington, points to annual layers of snow accumulation in a snow pit located near the South Pole. The strata lines are similar to tree rings in that each year's snowfall can be clearly viewed. Ice cores extracted from deep within the ice contain atmospheric gases from hundreds of thousands of years ago. These gases provide an accurate record of what the earth's atmosphere was like in the past.


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This photo is covered by a Creative Commons license. Please see the Usage and Submissions page for more information. Use of this photo requires the following:

(1.) The user must give appropriate credit to the photographer and the National Science Foundation (NSF) and provide a link to the Creative Commons license. (2.) Use of the photo must be for non-commercial purposes only. (3.) No derivative works may be made with the original photo without the explicit permission of the photographer.