Icing processes associated with high Arctic perennial springs, Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut, Canada

Abstract

AbstractSaline perennial springs have been documented at six locations on Axel Heiberg Island in the Canadian high Arctic. Spring discharge rates, temperatures and chemistry, and associated icing and frost mound formation have been documented at two locations in the Expedition Fiord area since 1988 and at one location near Whitsunday Bay since 1996. Cold Ca‐ and Na‐rich waters discharge near the base of Gypsum Hill and Colour Peak at Expedition Fiord. A large oval‐shaped icing up to 2 m thick forms at the base of Gypsum Hill while at Colour Peak the springs have formed a series of gullies and travertine deposits which develop three small icing and frost mounds systems in winter. At Whitsunday Bay cold discharge is from a single outlet and is confined by a deep channel where it forms a salt tufa. Where the channel emerges onto the floodplain a large fan‐shaped icing is formed. This paper also documents spring discharge and icing activity from three other non‐glacial sources and one glacial source. The icings and frost mounds formed by these springs are very different from those formed by late summer and early winter subglacial discharge. The high solute concentrations lead to freezing‐point depression, complex patterns of freezing and the formation of brine icings, together with a variety of mineral precipitates. Freezing‐point depression experiments help explain icing hydrology and the spatial pattern of icing formation. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.