scholarly journals Dynamics of Ice-Island Motion Near the Coast of Axel Heiberg Island, Canadian High Arctic

1989 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 152-156
Author(s):  
W.M. Sackinger ◽  
M.O. Jeffries ◽  
H. Tippens ◽  
F. Li ◽  
M. Lu

The largest ice island presently known to exist in the Arctic Ocean has a mass of about 700 × 106 tonnes, an area of about 26 km2, and a mean thickness of 42.5 m. Known as Hobson’s Ice Island, this large ice feature has been tracked almost continuously since August 1983 with a succession of Argos buoys. In this paper, two particular ice-island movement episodes near the north-west coast of Axel Heiberg Island are described: 6–16 May 1986 and 14–21 June 1986. Each movement episode is analyzed in terms of the forces acting on the ice island, including wind shear, water drag, water shear, Coriolis force, sea-surface tilt, and pack-ice force. Ice-island movement is generally preceded by an offshore surface wind, and a threshold wind speed of 6 m s°1 appears to be necessary to initiate ice-island motion. An angle of 50° between surface wind and ice-island movement direction is noted during one episode. The pack-ice force, which appears to be the dominant arresting factor of ice-island motion for these two episodes, varies from 100° to 180° to the left of the ice-island velocity direction, depending upon whether the ice island is accelerating or decelerating.

1989 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 152-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.M. Sackinger ◽  
M.O. Jeffries ◽  
H. Tippens ◽  
F. Li ◽  
M. Lu

The largest ice island presently known to exist in the Arctic Ocean has a mass of about 700 × 106 tonnes, an area of about 26 km2, and a mean thickness of 42.5 m. Known as Hobson’s Ice Island, this large ice feature has been tracked almost continuously since August 1983 with a succession of Argos buoys. In this paper, two particular ice-island movement episodes near the north-west coast of Axel Heiberg Island are described: 6–16 May 1986 and 14–21 June 1986. Each movement episode is analyzed in terms of the forces acting on the ice island, including wind shear, water drag, water shear, Coriolis force, sea-surface tilt, and pack-ice force. Ice-island movement is generally preceded by an offshore surface wind, and a threshold wind speed of 6 m s°1 appears to be necessary to initiate ice-island motion. An angle of 50° between surface wind and ice-island movement direction is noted during one episode. The pack-ice force, which appears to be the dominant arresting factor of ice-island motion for these two episodes, varies from 100° to 180° to the left of the ice-island velocity direction, depending upon whether the ice island is accelerating or decelerating.


1975 ◽  
Vol 14 (71) ◽  
pp. 267-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. S. Bradley

Equilibrium-line altitudes on the White Glacier, Axel Heiberg Island, and the north-west sector of the Devon Ice Cap are shown to be closely related to mean July freezing-level heights at nearby upper-air weather stations. An inverse relationship between July freezing-level heights and mass balance on the Devon Ice Cap is also shown. Reasons for such correlations are suggested and some limitations of the relationship are outlined. Recent lowering of the freezing level in July is discussed in relation to the theoretical “steady-state” equilibrium-line altitudes in the Canadian high Arctic. It is suggested that positive mass-balance years have predominated over a large part of northern Ellesmere Island and north-central Axel Heiberg Island since 1963, and some glaciological evidence supporting this hypothesis is given.


1975 ◽  
Vol 14 (71) ◽  
pp. 267-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. S. Bradley

AbstractEquilibrium-line altitudes on the White Glacier, Axel Heiberg Island, and the north-west sector of the Devon Ice Cap are shown to be closely related to mean July freezing-level heights at nearby upper-air weather stations. An inverse relationship between July freezing-level heights and mass balance on the Devon Ice Cap is also shown. Reasons for such correlations are suggested and some limitations of the relationship are outlined. Recent lowering of the freezing level in July is discussed in relation to the theoretical “steady-state” equilibrium-line altitudes in the Canadian high Arctic. It is suggested that positive mass-balance years have predominated over a large part of northern Ellesmere Island and north-central Axel Heiberg Island since 1963, and some glaciological evidence supporting this hypothesis is given.


1985 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 109-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.C. Bourgeois ◽  
R.M. Koerner ◽  
B.T. Alt

A study of pollen grain concentration in surface snow and ice cores at 15 sites in the Canadian high Arctic and one site near the tree line, together with published pollen deposition rates south of the tree line has shown long-range dispersal of pollen from the boreal forest to the limits of our area on the Arctic Ocean close to Svalbard and the North Pole. There are no discernible trends of deposition rates within the high Arctic which suggests extremely long trajectories with strong zonal components; some of the pollen may have an Eurasian source. We relate the trajectories to synoptic patterns in the mid- and high Arctic.


1985 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 109-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.C. Bourgeois ◽  
R.M. Koerner ◽  
B.T. Alt

A study of pollen grain concentration in surface snow and ice cores at 15 sites in the Canadian high Arctic and one site near the tree line, together with published pollen deposition rates south of the tree line has shown long-range dispersal of pollen from the boreal forest to the limits of our area on the Arctic Ocean close to Svalbard and the North Pole. There are no discernible trends of deposition rates within the high Arctic which suggests extremely long trajectories with strong zonal components; some of the pollen may have an Eurasian source. We relate the trajectories to synoptic patterns in the mid- and high Arctic.


2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 2221-2244 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Huang ◽  
S. L. Gong ◽  
S. Sharma ◽  
D. Lavoué ◽  
C. Q. Jia

Abstract. Black carbon (BC) particles accumulated in the Arctic troposphere and deposited over snow have significant effects on radiative forcing of the Arctic regional climate. Applying cluster analysis technique on 10-day backward trajectories, transport pathways affecting Alert (82.5° N, 62.5° W), Nunavut in Canada are identified in this work, along with the associated transport frequency. Based on the atmospheric transport frequency and the estimated BC emission intensity from surrounding regions, a linear regression model is constructed to investigate the inter-annual variations of BC observed at Alert in January and April, representative of winter and spring respectively, between 1990 and 2005. Strong correlations are found between BC concentrations predicted with the regression model and measured at Alert for both seasons (R2 equals 0.77 and 0.81 for winter and spring, respectively). Results imply that atmospheric transport and BC emission are the major contributors to the inter-annual variations in BC concentrations observed at Alert in the cold seasons for the 16-year period. Based on the regression model the relative contributions of regional BC emissions affecting Alert are attributed to the Eurasian sector, composed of the European Union and the former USSR, and the North American sector. Considering both seasons, the model suggests that Eurasia is the major contributor to the near-surface BC levels at the Canadian High Arctic site with an average contribution of over 85% during the 16-year period. In winter, the atmospheric transport of BC aerosols from Eurasia is found to be even more predominant with a multi-year average of 94%. The model estimates smaller contribution from the Eurasian sector in spring (70%) than that in winter. It is also found that the change in Eurasian contributions depends mainly on the reduction of emission intensity, while the changes in both emission and atmospheric transport contributed to the inter-annual variation of North American contributions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4-2021) ◽  
pp. 28-36
Author(s):  
O. V. Shabalina ◽  
◽  
K. S. Kazakova ◽  

The article presents materials from the personal fund of the largest hydropower engineer of the North-West of the USSR S. V. Grigoriev, belonging to the Museum-Archive of History of Studying and Exploration of the European North of the Barents Centre of Humanities of the KSC RAS. The personal documents of the scientist and the practitioner are sources of biographical information given in the article and potential sources for research in the field of the history of the scientific study of water bodies, rivers and the development of hydropower in the Arctic.


2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 155-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven W. Denyszyn ◽  
Don W. Davis ◽  
Henry C. Halls

The north–south-trending Clarence Head dyke swarm, located on Devon and Ellesmere Islands in the Canadian High Arctic, has a trend orthogonal to that of the Neoproterozoic Franklin swarm that surrounds it. The Clarence Head dykes are dated by the U–Pb method on baddeleyite to between 716 ± 1 and 713 ± 1 Ma, ages apparently younger than, but within the published age range of, the Franklin dykes. Alpha recoil in baddeleyite is considered as a possible explanation for the difference in ages, but a comparison of the U–Pb ages of grains of equal size from both swarms suggests that recoil distances in baddeleyite are lower than those in zircon and that the Clarence Head dykes are indeed a distinctly younger event within the period of Franklin magmatism. The Clarence Head dykes represent a large swarm tangential to, and cogenetic with, a giant radiating dyke swarm ∼800 km from the indicated source. The preferred mechanism for the emplacement of the Clarence Head dykes is the exploitation of concentric zones of extension around a depleting and collapsing plume source. While the paleomagnetism of most Clarence Head dykes agrees with that of the Franklin dykes, two dykes have anomalous remanence directions, interpreted to be a chemical remanent magnetization carried by pyrrhotite. The pyrrhotite was likely deposited from fluids mobilized southward from the Devonian Ellesmerian Orogeny to the north that used the interiors of the dykes as conduits and precipitated pyrrhotite en route.


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