‘Like touching climate change’: glaciers reveal records of the way the world was

Scientists Agnese Petteni (left) and Fabrizio de Blasi (right) inspect an ice core at the camp with their colleagues. Photograph: Riccardo Selvatico/Ca' Foscari University

Howling wind relentlessly shakes the white tent, pitched among mounds of snow at a height of 4,100m (13,450ft) on the Corbassière, an Alpine glacier situated on the northern slopes of Switzerland’s Grand Combin massif.

Inside are scientists from Venice’s Ca’ Foscari University and the institute of polar science at Italy’s national research council (CNR).