Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-m9kch Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-07T05:31:26.873Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Analysis of a Core Through the Meighen Ice Cap, Arctic Canada, and its Paleoclimatic Implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

R.M. Koerner  and
W.S.B. Paterson
R.M. Koerner
Affiliation:
Polar Continental Shelf Project, Department of Energy, Mines, and Resources, Ottawa, K1A OE4, Canada
W.S.B. Paterson
Affiliation:
Polar Continental Shelf Project, Department of Energy, Mines, and Resources, Ottawa, K1A OE4, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Analyses of crystal size, bubble content, oxygen isotope ratio, specific electrolytic conductivity, and the distribution of firn and dirt layers in a core, 121.2 m long, from surface to bedrock near the highest point of the Meighen Ice Cap, leads to the following outline of the ice cap's history. The ice cap, which has always been stagnant, originated in the cold period that followed the postglacial Climatic Optimum. After initial growth came a period of negative mass balance in which the area and thickness of the ice cap diminished and the surface slope at the core site steepened. The end of this period, at least 600 y.a., is marked by a discontinuity at 54 m depth in the core; above this level, the values of most parameters differ significantly from their values below. There followed a period of growth by the end of which, some 80 y.a., the ice cap had attained its maximum thickness; this period included the coldest interval in the ice cap's history. Ablation has predominated since then and up to 13 m of ice have been lost at the core site. This history resembles that of the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , September 1974 , pp. 253 - 263
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andrews, J.T., Barry, R.G., Bradley, R.S., Miller, G.H., Williams, L.D., (1972). Past and present glaciological responses to climate in eastern Baffin Island. Quaternary Research 2, 303–314.Google Scholar
Arnold, K.C., (1965). Aspects of the glaciology of Meighen Island, Northwest Territories, Canada. Journal of Glaciology 5, 399–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, K.C., (1966). The glaciological maps of Meighen Island, N.W.T. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 3, 903–908.Google Scholar
Blake, W. Jr., (1972). Climatic implication of radiocarbon dated driftwood in Queen Elizabeth Islands, Arctic Canada. Vasari, Y., Hyvarinen, H., Hicks, S., Climatic Changes in Arctic Areas during the Last Ten-Thousand Years University of Oulu, Finland 77–104.Google Scholar
Dansgaard, W., Johnsen, S.J., Clausen, H.B., Langway, C.C. Jr., (1971). Climatic record revealed by the Camp Century ice core. Turekian, K.K., The Late Cenozoic Glacial Ages Yale University Press, New Haven and London 37–56.Google Scholar
Hattersley-Smith, G., (1972). Climatic change and related problems in northern Ellesmere Island, N.W.T., Canada. Vasari, Y., Hyvarinen, H., Hicks, S., Climatic Changes in Arctic Areas during the Last Ten-Thousand Years University of Oulu, Finland 137–148.Google Scholar
Johnsen, S.J., Dansgaard, W., Clausen, H.B., Langway, C.C. Jr., (1972). Oxygen isotope profiles through the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. Nature (London) 235, 429–434.Google Scholar
Koerner, R.M., (1968). Fabric analysis of a core from the Meighen Ice Cap, Northwest Territories, Canada. Journal of Glaciology 7, 421–430.Google Scholar
Koerner, R.M., (1970). Some observations on superimposition of ice on the Devon Island ice cap, N.W.T., Canada. Geografiska Annaler 52A, 57–67.Google Scholar
Koerner, R.M., (1973). Specific electrolytic conductivity of snow and deep core samples from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The Role of snow and ice in hydrology. Proceedings of the Banff Symposia 1, IAHS, and UNESCO 51–63(September 1972. WMO).Google Scholar
Koerner, R.M., Paterson, W.S.B., Krouse, H.R., (1973). A δO18 profile in ice formed between the equilibrium and firn lines. Nature Physical Science 245, 148 137–140.Google Scholar
Lamb, H.H., (1972). Atmospheric circulation and climate in the Arctic since the last ice age. Vasari, Y., Hyvarinen, H., Hicks, S., Climatic Changes in Arctic Areas during the Last Ten-Thousand Years University of Oulu, Finland 455–495.Google Scholar
Lyons, J.B., Mielke, J.E., (1973). Holocene history of a portion of northernmost Ellesmere Island. Arctic 26, 314–323.Google Scholar
Nichols, H., (1972). Summary of the palynological evidence for late-Quaternary vegetational and climatic change in the central and eastern Canadian Arctic. Vasari, Y., Hyvarinen, H., Hicks, S., Climatic Changes in Arctic Areas during the Last Ten-Thousand Years University of Oulu, Finland 310–339.Google Scholar
Paterson, W.S.B., (1968). A temperature profile through the Meighen Ice Cap, Arctic Canada. International Association of Scientific Hydrology, Publication 79, 440–449.Google Scholar
Paterson, W.S.B., (1969). The Meighen Ice Cap, Arctic Canada: accumulation, ablation and flow. Journal of Glaciology 8, 341–352.Google Scholar
Weidick, A., (1972). Note on Holocene glacial events in Greenland. Vasari, Y., Hyvarinen, H., Hicks, S., Climatic Changes in Arctic Areas during the Last Ten-Thousand Years University of Oulu, Finland 177–204.Google Scholar