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You are browsing the archive for Baffin Island glacier retreat 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 …

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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 …

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July 1, 2019

Fork Beard Glacier, Baffin Island High June 2019 Temperatures and Snowline

Fork Beard (F) and Nerutusoq Glacier (N) Baffin Island on June 1, 2019,  June 18, 2019 Sentinel images and June 30 Landsat image. Purple dots indicate the snowline.  Fork Beard Glacier (F) is an outlet glacier of a mountain glacier complex just southeast of Penny Ice Cap on Baffin Island.  Nerutusoq Glacier  (N) also drains from the same complex. Here we examine the rapid rise of the snowline from June …

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June 14, 2018

Coutts Ice Cap, Baffin Island Fragmentation

Coutts Ice Cap in  Landsat images from 1986 and 2017.  The terminus location of the main glacier terminating in the large lake is indicated by dots.  Tributary Glaciers 1-6 represent locations where glaciers have separated or a glacier has retreated from a lake.  Coutts Ice Cap is on between Coutts Inlet to the west and Buchan Gulf to the east on the north shore of Baffin Island near its northeastern …

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May 11, 2017

Borden Peninsula Ice Caps, Baffin Island Snowcover Where Art Thou

Borden Peninsula Ice Cap in 1997 and 2016 Landsat images.  Purple dots indicate the transient snowline.  Orange arrows indicate specific location of glacier thinning, retreat or area loss.  The Borden Peninsula is in the northeastern most section of Baffin Island.  Here we examine an ice cap that is on the edge of Lancaster Sound in Sirmilik National Park.  We use Landsat imagery from 1997 through 2016 to identify change.  This …

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January 20, 2017

Penny Ice Cap Northern Outlet Retreat, Baffin Island

Penny Ice Cap Northern Outlet Glacier #43 in 1989 and 2016 Landsat images. Red arrow indicates 1989 terminus, yellow arrow 2016 terminus.  Two peripheral ice masses are at Point A and B.  The primary northern outlet from the Penny ice Cap is an unnamed glacier, noted as #43 in the recent study by Van Wychen et al (2015). it is one of two large tidewater outlet glaciers on Baffin Island. Here …

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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 …

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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. …

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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 …

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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 …

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