Growth and Grounding of the Ellesmere Island Ice Rises

Abstract

AbstractAnalysis of glaciologial data indicates that grounding of the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf and its conversion into an ice rise was primarily the result of local thickening of a floating ice shelf and the availability of a very gently sloping sea floor on which the ice shelf came to rest. Application of heat conduction theory to a series of thermal profiles through the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, and the Ward Hunt, Camp Creek and Cape Discovery ice rises shows that present heat flow in this area of northern Ellesmere Island is more than twice normal, and that the outer and intermediate parts of the Ward Hunt ice rise grounded 250–350 years ago, during a cycle of climatic deterioration. Development and localization of ice rises along northern Ellesmere Island are strongly influenced by topography, and all ice rises we have studied seem to have formed within the past 1 600 years, possibly with major growth in the interval from 1 000 to 150 years ago.