Since May 3rd, 2023, the project “Testigos de Hielo” (ice cores taken from glaciers of the mountain range) is taking place on the esplanade of the Cultural Park of Valparaíso. This initiative was awarded through the fund Ciencia Pública of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge, and Innovation and developed by Campus Creativo, the Faculty of Engineering, and the Vice Rectory of Research and Doctorate of the Universidad Andrés Bello.
The exhibition that takes place on the esplanade of the Cultural Park allows the visitor to have a great sensory experience (samples of images, videos, sounds, and information). Its installation of great artistic, scientific, and technological standard gives visitors the opportunity to understand a part of the world of glaciology, which focuses on ice cores, and the climate change in the Valparaíso region and Chile.
This is a high-impact event since it brings science to public places, where the diversity of visitors and cultures of different parts of the region and the country converge. Glaciology is a scientific discipline that studies glaciers, glaciations, and the cryosphere, in which the monitoring and measurements of glaciers are obtained on-site and/or remotely. Therefore, this event allows to show one of the processes and methodologies for studying the glaciers through ice cores.
These activities are of great relevance for citizens who aren’t part of the world of glaciology, as they allow to present methods, terms, and scientific materials to kids, teenagers, young people, and families. This exhibition probably is and will be a life-changing experience for the visitor. Also, it shows a distant world from people such as the mountains, glaciers, and the cryosphere, but so close at the same time since everything that happens there impacts us in one way or another.
My visit to this event has surprised me by the innovation, creativity, and work behind this event about ice cores. Without a doubt, this is a high-value cultural and social event that you should visit.
Photograph of a 200 m deep ice core section extracted in 2013 from a point near the top of Hunter Mountain, Alaska, United States. / © Lecavalier y Markle (2016).
Scale photography that shows a melting event in a 20 cm long ice core section from Northern Chile, which represents events such as heat waves. / © Testigos de Hielo.
Photography of an ice core section from Northern Chile, which represents the transformation or transition from snow to firn and finally to ice. / © Testigos de Hielo.
Scale photography that shows a hole left at the time of the extraction of an ice core. / © Testigos de Hielo.
Site visit of a group of glaciologists who are determining the summer melting rates in an ablation zone of the Juncal Norte glacier. / © Testigos de Hielo.
