Axel Heiberg Island Nunavut Arctic Canada – Earthtopomaps
Axel Heiberg Island is located in the Arctic Ocean ( Nunavut, Canada ). It has a total area of 43178 km2 ( 16671 mi2 ). Ranking it the world’s 31st largest and Canada’s 7th largest island.
The island is famous for its fossil forest:.
( A former high-latitude wetland forest with tall trees ) dating back from the Eocene era:. ( 56 to 34 million years ago ). Due to the lack of mineralization in the specimens, the forests’ fossilization is more like mummification. The island’s warm climate allowed its trees to reach heights of up to 35 m ( 115 ft. ):. And age between 500 – 1000 years.
In summer 1986, a Canadian expedition started the fossil forest’s investigation. In 1999 started a project for the preservation of the fossil wood since due to erosion many of the fossils were already exposed and damaged.
Axel Heiberg Island Nunavut Arctic Canada – Earthtopomaps
There were even concerns that some of the fossils were being taken by cruise ship tourists:. And that the island was being disturbed by military helicopters from a nearby Canadian base.
Currently, there is a plan for establishing the Napaaqtulik National Park, which name in Inuit means ” where there are trees “. Along with the tree fossils. On Axel Heiberg Island were also discovered remarkably preserved animal fossils:. Including an Aurorachelys turtle from the Cretaceous period ( from 145 – 66 million years ago ).
Glaciation
White Glacier is a valley glacier occupying 38.7 km2 (14.9 sq mi) in the Expedition Fiord area of Axel Heiberg Island ( 79°30′N 090°50′W ). It extends in elevation from 56 to 1,782 m ( 184 to 5,846 ft ) above sea level. A range which, as noted by Dyurgerov (2002):. Is exceeded only by Devon Ice Cap in the world list of glaciers with measured mass balance. Ice thickness reaches or exceeds 400 m (1,300 ft).
Axel Heiberg Island Nunavut Arctic Canada – Earthtopomaps
Its maximum extension in recent history:. Marking the advance of the glacier in response to the cooling of the Little Ice Age and more probably at the beginning of the 20th century.
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There is evidence that the retreat of the terminus, previously at about 5 m (16 ft) per year, is decelerating (Cogley et al. 1996a; Cogley and Adams 2000). White Glacier has been the subject of many papers in the glaciological literature since 1960, e.g. Müller ( 1962 ) was the source of a now-classical diagram elaborating and illustrating the concept of “glacier facies”.
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Today we’ve started to roll out updated map layers in Google Earth Pro on desktop. With this change we are removing some outdated data in Earth Pro, as well as making improvements to keep maps layer data more consistent with other Google products like Maps and Earth web and mobile.
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See also:
The Erebus Glacier in Antarctica comes down from Mt-Erebus
Axel Heiberg Island | The Canadian Encyclopedia
Research
Revised August 31, 2023