About an eighth of a University of Alberta collection of ice cores has melted due to a freezer malfunction:
A precious collection of ice cores from the Canadian Arctic has suffered a catastrophic meltdown. A freezer failure at a cold storage facility in Edmonton run by the University of Alberta (UA) caused 180 of the meter-long ice cylinders to melt, depriving scientists of some of the oldest records of climate change in Canada's far north.
The 2 April failure left "pools of water all over the floor and steam in the room," UA glaciologist Martin Sharp told ScienceInsider. "It was like a changing room in a swimming pool."
The melted cores represented 12.8% of the collection, which held 1408 samples taken from across the Canadian Arctic. The cores hold air bubbles, dust grains, pollen, and other evidence that can provide crucial information about past climates and environments, and inform predictions about the future.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday April 12 2017, @03:30AM
I think the heat rise above the outdoor temperature is simpler than that. The heat pump simply converted all electrical energy into heat inside the freezer room which is well insulated. Hence the +40 ⁰C temperature.
Of course without better sources it's hard to know for sure.