You are browsing the archive for baffin island glacier melt Archives - From a Glacier's Perspective.
June 8, 2023
Terra Nivea Ice Cap Expanding Bedrock Outcrops and Proglacial Lakes
Terra Nivea Ice Cap in Sentinel false color images from 2017 and 2022. Point A=bedrock outcrops expanding. Point L=expanding proglacial lakes. Red arrow=supraglacial stream chanels, yellow arrow=annual layers, green arrow=location where ice cap will separate. Terra Nivea Ice Cap is the southern most Ice Cap in North America, on the Terra Incognita Peninsula of Baffin Island. Mercer (1956) noted that the ice cap accumulation during most years was via superimposed …
July 7, 2019
Penny Ice Cap NW Thinning and Retreat Evident
The Northwest (NW) and Northnorthwest (NNW) outlet of the Penny Ice Cap in 1991 and 2019 Landsat images. Red arrow indicates the 1991 terminus location. Point 1 is a large proglacial, Point 2-4 are areas of emerging and expanding bedrock amidst the ice cap. The two largest outlet glaciers of the NW quadrant of the Penny Ice Cap feed the Isurtuq River. In 1991 both outlet glaciers terminated at 600 …
January 9, 2017
Coronation Glacier, Baffin Island Retreat Leads to Building a New Island
A Landsat image from 1989 and a Sentinel 2 image from2016 illustrate the retreat of Coronation Glacier. Red arrows indicate the 1989 terminus and yellow arrows the 2016 terminus location. Purple numbers 1-5 indicate locations of tributary retreat or thinning. Purple numbers 6-9 are icecaps that did not retain snowcover in 2016. Coronation Glacier is the largest outlet glacier of the Penny Ice Cap on Baffin Island. The glacier has …
November 18, 2016
Barnes Ice Cap, Baffin Island Evident Response to Climate Change
Barnes Ice Cap transect and closeup of divide area in August 2016. Black dots indicate summit divide of the ice cap. Notice the channels extending away from the divide. These are not stream channels, as they are too wide, but they are meltwater formed valleys that are preferred pathways for the meltwater transport. Barnes Ice Cap located in the center of Baffin Island, Canada covers an area of ~5800 km2. …
May 20, 2016
Clephane Bay Ice Cap, Baffin Island Being Erased from Map
Comparison of 1995 and 2014 Landsat images of ice caps A, B, C, D and E. Pink arrows indicate where A, B and E separated. C and D have disappeared. F is an outlet glacier with a retreating terminus. The southern part of the Cumberland Peninsula on Baffin Island features many small ice caps. Here we examine the disappearance of two and the separation of two others from 1995 to …
July 28, 2015
Auyuittuq National Park Ice Cap Downwasting, Baffin Island
Just south of the Penny Ice Cap on Baffin Island in Auyuittuq National Park there are a large number of small ice caps. We focus on three of these ice caps east of Greenshield Lake. The region has been experiencing rapid ice loss, with 50 % of the ice cap area lost in the last few decades (Miller et al, 2008). Miller et al (2008) also observe that these are thin …
March 10, 2013
Dexterity Ice Cap, Baffin Island
At the south end of Dexterity Fjord on the northeast coast of Baffin Island is an unnamed icecap that I will refer to as Dexterity Icecap. Gardner et al (2012). Gardner et al 2011 and Sharp et al (2011) both note that the first decade of the 21st century had the warmest temperatures of the last 50 years, the period of record. identified that the mass loss had doubled in …
February 20, 2012
Penny Ice Cap southwestern margin retreat
Examination of 1991 and 2009 Landsat imagery highlights the retreat of the Penny Ice Cap at its southwestern margin. The glaciers and lakes in this region are unnamed. The Penny Ice Cap is one of two large ice caps on Baffin Island and is the southernmost of the two, with an area of more than 5600 square kilometers. On the east side the glacier exit the ice cap through spectacular …
Dean of Academic Affairs at Nichols College and Professor of Environmental Science at Nichols College in Massachusetts since 1989. Glaciologist directing the North Cascade Glacier Climate Project since 1984. This project monitors the mass balance and behavior of more glaciers than any other in North America.