Geoscientists at the Alfred Wegener Institute are reconstructing the history of the polar continents and seas. They study sedimentation history, the processes of deposition and geological transformation in the oceans, marine bio-geochemical cycles, and the paleoclimate of the polar regions. Glaciologists are working on the reconstruction of climate history from ice cores, researching the mass balance and the dynamcis of the large ice masses in Greenland and the Antarctic, as well as their interactions with the global climate. Seismic measurements and the identification of anomalies in the Earth's gravitational and magnetic field provide the scientists with valuable information about the structure of the Arctic and Antarctic continental shelfs. Atmospheric chemists at AWI are unravelling the chemical processes in the troposphere and stratosphere that determine our environment.