'Gas trap' 2 designed by David Etheridge
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- Type
- Scientific equipment
- Place
- Antarctica
- Materials
- Metal - non specific, Plastic, Rubber
- Collection
- CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere collection
- Accession number
- 2017.0034.0005
Description
A gas trap made of various components all joint together forming one piece. Materials consist of round and rectangular pieces of metal which include bolts and screws as well as pieces of round plastic and rubber. '9D' is engraved in the rectangle bit of the metal followed by 'NUPRO' etched above it. Etched on the other side of the metal is 'SS - 6BG / TW'.
Gas ‘trap’ used to store and transport gases extracted from Dome Summit South ice cores drilled between 1987 and 1993, and from other cores. The air is dried at minus 100 degrees, before it is collected in these traps. Designed by David Etheridge.
About the collection
The CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere collection comprises scientific equipment used in the analysis of atmospheric change, and fragments of Antarctic bedrock retrieved during a major ice core drilling project in 1993. All items are in good condition. In the 1980s and 1990s, David Etheridge, principal research scientist at CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, led a series of Antarctic field programs to investigate atmospheric composition change, climate change, and ice sheet dynamics. His analysis of atmospheric gases trapped in Antarctic ice, extracted in cores drilled by the Australian Antarctic Division, confirmed an exponential increase in carbon dioxide levels in the past century, and provided firm evidence that the increase is the result of human activity. The Cape Grim Air Archive holds air samples collected since 1978 at Cape Grim, on the north-west tip of Tasmania. Scientific analysis of Cape Grim air samples, correlated with data extracted from ice cores, significantly contributed to understandings of changes in the composition of Southern Hemispheric air. Donated by CSIRO Climate Science Centre
Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 5:44:36 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2026-08-21. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.