Rapid wastage of the Hazen Plateau ice caps, northeastern Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada

Abstract

Abstract. Two pairs of small stagnant ice bodies on the Hazen Plateau of northeastern Ellesmere Island, the St. Patrick Bay ice caps and the Murray and Simmons ice caps, are rapidly shrinking, and the remnants of the St. Patrick Bay ice caps are likely to disappear entirely within the next 5 years. Vertical aerial photographs of these Little Ice Age relics taken during August of 1959 show that the larger of the St. Patrick Bay ice caps had an area of 7.48 km 2 and the smaller one 2.93 km 2 ; the Murray and Simmons ice caps covered 4.37 and 7.45 km 2 respectively. Outlines determined from ASTER satellite data for July 2016 show that, compared to 1959, the larger and the smaller of the St. Patrick Bay ice caps had both been reduced to only 5 % of their former area, with the Murray and Simmons ice caps faring better at 39 and 25 %, likely reflecting their higher elevation. Consistent with findings from other glaciological studies in the Queen Elizabeth Islands, ASTER imagery in conjunction with past GPS surveys documents a strikingly rapid wastage of the St. Patrick Bay ice caps over the last 15 years. These two ice caps shrank noticeably even between 2014 and 2015, apparently in direct response to the especially warm summer of 2015 over northeastern Ellesmere Island. The welldocumented recession patterns of the Hazen Plateau ice caps over the last 55+ years offer an opportunity to examine the processes of plant recolonization of polar landscapes.

Area change of glaciers across Northern Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, between ~1999 and ~2015

“…Two main trends for the remaining glaciers include the rapid loss of small, low elevation land-terminating glaciers and the loss of floating glacier termini in the form of ice tongues and ice shelves. The loss of small glaciers is a trend that has continued since the 1950s, and has been observed in other regions across the CAA as well (Braun and others, 2004; Thomson and others, 2011; Sharp and others, 2014; Serreze and others, 2017). Our analysis also revealed the complete loss of three small ice caps.…”

“…Serreze and others (2017) described the continued loss of the Hazen Plateau ice caps up to 2016, and revealed that the St. Patrick Bay Ice Caps only had 5% of their 1959 area remaining (10.42 km 2 in 1959 vs 0.50 km 2 in 2016). The authors noted that the ice caps even shrank noticeably between 2014 and 2015, in direct response to the particularly warm summer of 2015.…”

“…Our analysis also revealed the complete loss of three small ice caps. The increased loss of small ice caps on Northern Ellesmere can be attributed to their increased sensitivity to the accelerated warming in the region, and the decrease in their surface albedo due to the accumulation of surface debris (Serreze and others, 2017). Small glaciers with relatively higher mean elevation are slightly less sensitive due to their cooler summer temperatures at high altitudes (Serreze and others, 2017).…”

“…The largest mean percentage area changes for Northern Ellesmere occurred from glaciers <1 km 2 in area, which lost an average of 29.2% of their initial ice area. Since 2000, a few studies have been conducted on Northern Ellesmere Island to assess changes in ice shelf area (e.g., Copland and others, 2007; Mueller and others, 2017a, b) and the changes of individual ice caps (Braun and others, 2004; Serreze and others, 2017), but no detailed regional assessment of glacier changes has been conducted.…”

Contemporary limnology of the rapidly changing glacierized watershed of the world’s largest High Arctic lake

“…The watershed is underlain by a diverse geology, dominated by the largely sedimentary bedrock of the Cambrian Grant Land formation (quartzite, sandstone) along the northwestern shore and the Silurian Danish River formation along the southeastern Hazen Plateau (300–1000 m.a.s.l. ), which lacks major ice or water features 42,67 . In summer, glacial meltwaters form braided rivers that flow between 4.6 and 42 km into Lake Hazen along its northwestern shore (Fig.…”