ON THE ROCKS PRESENTS

Field Trip to the NSF Ice Core Facility and the USGS Core research Center

 Friday August 15, 2025

9:00 am to 12:00 am

Join RMAG for a half-day field trip to tour the National Science Foundation Ice Core facility and the United States Geological Survey Core Research Center on the morning of Friday August 15th. 

Established in 1974, the USGS Core Research Center is home to 9,800 rock cores and 58,000 cuttings from wells that supplied valuable scientific information to academia, government agencies, and industry. We will examine a section of core (TBD) after the completion of the tour. Learn more about the USGS Core Research Center...

We will also tour the NSF Ice Core Facility, also located in Building 810. Formerly known as the National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL) is a facility for storing, curating, and studying meteoric ice cores recovered from the glaciated regions of the world. A perfect respite for a hot summer day. Learn More about the NSF Ice Core Facility...

Field trip activities should be completed by noon and participants are encouraged to join us for lunch and socializing at the Westrail Tap & Grill just blocks away.

United States Geological Survey Core Research Center

The Core Research Center is home to 9,800 rock cores and 53,000 cuttings wells that since 1974 has supplied valuable scientific information to academia, government agencies, and industry alike. The majority of research conducted on the collection to date has been related to natural resource characterization, but the collection has also been studied for many other lines of inquiry. Some examples of past research include a core drilled from Cajon Pass, CA which was drilled to determine fault motions and resistance to plate motion from two plates along an important fault.  Cores from the Enewetak Atoll were originally used to understand the effects of nuclear bursts on geologic structures but have more recently been used in climate studies.  Cores that were drilled in Yellowstone from a 1967-1968 expedition are still being researched to understand the chemistry of the rocks and the interactions with the geothermal fluids of Yellowstone.  Cores from the Green River Formation have been used to understand ancient lake systems and the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.  The Castle Pines and Kiowa cores have been used to examine spatial variation on yields for groundwater resources in the Denver Basin and to study the paleobiology of the Upper Cretaceous and Lower Tertiary of the Denver Basin. These are but a few examples of how these valuable resources can continue to contribute to our understanding of earth systems.

National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility 

The National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility (NSF-ICF)  - formerly the U.S. National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL), the National — is a facility for storing, curating, and studying meteoric ice cores recovered from the glaciated regions of the world. It provides scientists with the capability to conduct examinations and measurements on ice cores, and it preserves the integrity of these ice cores in a long-term repository for current and future investigations.

The ice cores are recovered and studied for a variety of scientific investigations, most of which focus on the reconstruction of past climate states of the Earth. By investigating past climate fluctuations, scientists hope to understand the mechanisms by which climate change is accomplished, and in so doing, they hope to develop predictive capabilities for future climate change.

The facility's most important responsibility is for the safe and secure storage and curation of ice cores collected primarily by NSF-sponsored projects. The facility also allows scientists to examine ice cores without having to travel to remote field sites. The main archive freezer is 55,000 cubic feet in size and is held at a temperature of -36°C. A second room for examination of ice cores, held at -24°C, is 12,000 cubic feet in size and is contiguous with the archive area. NSF-ICF also maintains space outside the freezer for material fabrication, storage, changing areas, offices, and visiting scientist workspace.

The facility currently stores over 22,000 meters of ice core collected from various locations in Antarctica, Greenland, and North America.

Important Information

We will meet at the 9am at the USGS Core Facility and the NSF Ice Core Facility, located in building 810 of the Denver Federal Center

Real ID must be presented at TSA checkpoints to federal facilities. (Colorado has been a mandatory REAL ID state since 2013, meaning that 100% of those eligible for a REAL ID in Colorado have received a REAL ID-compliant credential at either their initial issuance or during the renewal process. All state IDs and driver licenses with stars in the corner are REAL ID certified.)

Let us know if you plan to join us for lunch at West Trail Tap & Grill, lunch costs will be on your own. 

Cost

The tour of the National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility and the USGS Core Research Center is free of charge fees below are intended to cover RMAG organizational time. 

• $20 Members
• $30 Non-Members (not a member? Join Today!)
• Student Members are free please contact [email protected] to register. 

If you are joining for lunch, it will be on your own. 

Refunds

Refunds for the trip to the National Science Foundation Ice Core facility and the United States Geological Survey Core Research Center  are available until August 4, 2025. After August 4, 2025, if you can no longer attend you can transfer your registration to another attendee or forfeit the trip costs.