Observations on buried glacier ice and massive segregated ice, western arctic coast, Canada

• Published in: Permafrost and Periglacial Processes
• Main Authors: French, H. M., Harry, D. G.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1990
• Subjects: Arctic; Canada; Mackenzie Delta; Banks Island; eskimo*; glacier*; Permafrost and Periglacial Processes
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ppp.3430010105; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fppp.3430010105; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ppp.3430010105

Abstract The two main theories for the origin of the thick bodies of massive ground ice known to exist in the Western Canadian Arctic are (1) segregation‐injection and (2) buried glacier ice. Because buried glacier ice may contain significant quantities of stratified debris and may have experienced thawing and refreezing (regelation) on several occasions, it may be very difficult to distinguish between massive segregated ice and buried basal glacier ice. By use of cryostratigraphic and cryotextural (petrofabric) observations, massive ground ice bodies observed in the Sandhills Moraine, southern Banks Island, and the southern Eskimo Lakes region, Pleistocene Mackenzie Delta, are both interpreted as basal glacier ice. Other massive ground ice bodies which have been examined in the Western Canadian Arctic are best explained in terms of segregation‐injection.