Geophysics: History on the Rocks

The reporters were accustomed to more stimulating press-conference re freshment. But if the Coca-Cola served at the Pentagon last week seemed bland, the ice that cooled it was something else again. That ice, announced Army scientists, was formed from snow that fell around the time that Christ was born. It had been taken from 1,800 ft.

below the surface of the Greenland ice sheet by an Army team that had drilled to a record depth of 4,550 ft.

To retrieve ancient ice, Army engi neers, led by Physicist B. Lyle Hansen, used a thermal drill with a hollow, elec trically heated...