Characteristics of an Icing-Dammed Proglacial Lake ...

• Main Author: Blade, Michelle
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Graduate Studies 2017
• Subjects: Physical Geography; icing; dam; lake; proglacial; spring; Arctic; emerging; polythermal; Bylot Island
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/prism/25255; https://prism.ucalgary.ca/handle/11023/4211

Icing-dammed proglacial lakes form as a result of water-flow pathway restrictions caused by freezing of winter baseflow. With the majority of glaciers in the eastern Canadian High Arctic that previously terminated at sea level now terminating on land (Vaughan et al., 2013), emerging proglacial environments are becoming more common - resulting in the occurrence of novel terrestrial proglacial water flow regimes. This research addressed the knowledge gap of how a glacier, proglacial environment, and hydrological cycle contribute to delayed water-flow, in the form of a proglacial icing-dammed lake, in the terrestrial proglacial environment. The research was conducted at a unique location on Bylot Island, NU, in the eastern Canadian High Arctic, where icing-dammed proglacial lakes have been observed to form multiple years prior. In the proglacial environment, icing development has been studied as proxies to infer winter baseflow from upvalley glacial hydrological networks (Hodgkins et al., 2004; Wainstein, ...