Category Archives: Glacier

Axel Heiberg Island Nunavut Arctic Canada – Earth topo maps

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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Axel Heiberg Island Nunavut
Axel Heiberg Island Nunavut

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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Axel Heiberg Island Nunavut
Axel Heiberg Island Nunavut

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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Axel Heiberg Island Nunavut
Axel Heiberg Island Nunavut

See also:

The Erebus Glacier in Antarctica comes down from Mt-Erebus

Axel Heiberg Island | The Canadian Encyclopedia

Research

Revised August 31, 2023

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The Erebus glacier in Antarctica comes down from Mt. Erebus

The Erebus glacier in Antarctica comes down from Mt. Erebus

The Erebus Ice Tongue is the serrated:. Blue-rimmed “knife” extending toward image center from the upper right out into snow- and ice-covered McMurdo Sound.

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The Erebus glacier in Antarctica comes down from Mt. Erebus and protrudes off the coast of:. Ross Island forming an 11-12 km long ice tongue a long and narrow sheet of ice projecting out from the coastline.

Beneath the smooth white expanse is the Southern Ocean.

An ice tongue forms when a valley glacier moves very rapidly out into the sea or a lake.

When the sea ice in McMurdo Sound thaws in the summer, the ice tongue floats on the water without thawing. It also calves off in places forming icebergs. The Erebus Ice Tongue is only about 10 meters high, so its icebergs are small. When the ice around the tongue melts in the summer:. Waves of sea water constantly batter the edges of the tongue, carving very elaborate structures in the ice:. Sometimes producing deep caves at the margins. In the winter, the sea freezes once more around these new shapes.

This false-color composite image was acquired by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission:. And Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on the Terra satellite.

The Erebus glacier in Antarctica

The image was created by combining near-infrared, red, and green wavelengths:. (ASTER bands 3, 2, & 1 respectively). The image was acquired on November 30, 2001:. In the thin light of permanent “dawn” that the continent experiences during the Southern Hemisphere spring.

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Most of the Antarctic continent is buried:. Under the planet’s largest single mass of ice.

The Erebus glacier in Antarctica comes down from Mt. Erebus
The Erebus glacier in Antarctica comes down from Mt. Erebus

But there are a few landmarks that stand out from the endless white:. Including a volcano that continuously emits gases and occasionally erupts. Mount Erebus is Earth’s southernmost active volcano.

Erebus is featured in this image acquired on October 19. 2019. by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite.

The image is false-color but looks natural:. Which is a result of visible and near-infrared wavelengths of light (ASTER bands 3, 2, 1).

The area was just days away from constant 24-hour sunlight:. When this image was acquired. The Sun angle was still low enough that morning to illuminate the volcano’s eastern slopes:. While the volcano cast a mighty shadow to the west. That’s not hard to do, given that the volcano stands 3,794 meters (12,450 feet):. Above sea level the second-tallest of more than 100 known Antarctic volcanoes.

Erebus is the dominant feature of Ross Island, which juts out of the Ross Sea and the Ross Ice Shelf.

Nearby research facilities including the U.S. McMurdo Station just 35 kilometers (22 miles) away means the volcano has been accessible to and well-studied by researchers.

Although not visible in this image, gases regularly rise from the lava lake on the volcano’s summit. On occasion, a large bubble of gas, or “gas slug:.” Rises up from within the volcano and triggers a Strombolian eruption. This eruption type can eject masses of molten rock up to 250 meters from the lake.

Beyond the volcano and its shadow, sunlight illuminates vivid blue patches amid the white.

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These areas are clear of surface snow, exposing glacial ice. Nearby areas that appear smooth are the snow- and ice-topped waters of McMurdo Sound. The flat expanse is disrupted by the Erebus Ice Tongue:. Fast flowing glacial ice that cuts into the sound like a knife.

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See also:

The Erebus glacier in Antarctica comes down from Mt. Erebus

Research

Earthtopomaps.com

Revised September 12, 2023