Researchers from Plymouth State University will visit Norway Pond this Sunday to extract a sediment core from the pond bottom. Once it’s been analyzed, the core will serve as an archive of how the pond and surrounding lands have responded to environmental change over hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years. The core is expected to extend through the time Hancock was first settled in 1764. It may also reveal the impacts of the Little Ice Age (1300 to 1850 AD), the Medieval Warm Period (950 to 1250 AD), the Climatic Optimum (a warm period that occurred 9,000 to 5,000 years ago), and maybe even the retreat of the glacial Laurentide ice sheet (about 12,500 years ago).

9 a.m. to dusk on Norway Pond in Hancock. The tripod pulling the core will be set up on the ice above the “deep spot,” and should be visible from the town beach. Stop by anytime to see science in action! For more information, email Tom Shevenell.

Cosponsored by the Harris Center for Conservation Education and the Norway Pond Commission.