Tanquary Fiord Research Articles

Postglacial Uplift at Tanquary Fiord, Northern Ellesmere Island, Northwest Territories

Constructs a postglacial uplift curve for the upper part of Tanquary Fiord from radiocarbon ages of marine shells and peat. Data show the head of the fiord to be clear of glacier ice by at least 6500 yr BP. During 6500-5000 yr BP isostatic uplift was at a rate of about 3.5 m/century and subsequently about 25 cm/cent.

ON THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE RATE OF ABLATION OF SEA ICE

A study has been made of the heat budget just before and during the season of ablation, of first year sea ice near the head of Tanquary Fiord. Ablation started as the air temperature approached 0 °C, producing a decrease in albedo from approximately 0.6 to 0.2 in less than a week. Typical values of incident shortwave radiation were 800 cal cm−2 day−1 on clear days and 400 cal cm−2 day−1 during heavy overcast. The net influx of all-wave radiation was about 350 cal cm−2 day−1 during the ablation period, and resulted in a rate of ablation of ice of approximately 4 cm day−1.It is shown that the flux of radiative heat is the dominant factor determining the ablation rate and the change in thermal content of the ice sheet. Upward conduction from the sea is small, except when surface melt runoff occurs and collects in a stable layer immediately under the ice sheet. Even partial refreezing in this layer may release large quantities of latent heat to increase the rate of bottom conduction appreciably.

Stratified Water of a Glacial Lake in Northern Ellesmere Island

Antoinette Bay constitutes the central arm of Greely Fiord and extends 40 km. east-northeastward from its junction with Tanquary Fiord in about 80°50'N, 79°W. A large tidewater glacier, flowing northwestward from the Mer de Glace Agassiz to the southeast, has blocked off the head of the bay (or, more properly, fiord) and separates it from the long narrow lake that is the natural extension of the fiord to the east. We visited Antoinette Bay and the lake on June 2 and 3, 1963 during the course of an oceanographic traverse over the sea-ice from the field station of the Defence Research Board at the head of Tanquary Fiord. Antoinette Bay is a typical steep-sided fiord; a single sounding, taken 10 km. from its mouth, showed no bottom at 240 m. The lake, which is unnamed, was visited on the chance of finding interesting structural and temperature conditions in the lake water. ...

Rapid Advance of Glacier in Northern Ellesmere Island

OTTO FIORD, on the north-west coast of Ellesmere Island, extends for about 100 km eastward and north-eastward from Nansen Sound. The tide-water glacier at its head in 81° 20′ N., 84° 40′ W. drains the ice cap between Tanquary Fiord to the south and Phillips Inlet on the north coast of the Island. This ice cap constitutes one of the most extensive, unbroken areas of land ice in the Canadian Arctic, and maintains a general elevation of 1,800 m over an area of about 2,000 km2; the Otto Fiord glacier is by far its largest outlet on the west side. The glacier flows down from the elevation of about 1,800 m to sea-level in a straight valley 35 km long and 4–6 km wide between rugged mountains and nunataks. Neither glacier nor ice cap has been visited on the ground.