An Unusual Polynya in an Arctic Fjord

• Main Authors: Sadler, H. E., Serson, H. V.
• Other Authors: Freeland, Howard J., Farmer, David M., Levings, Colin D.
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Springer 1980
• Subjects: Arctic; Baffin Island; Cambridge Fiord; Dunbar; Pond Inlet; Sadler; Baffin; inuit
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/30551/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/30551/1/Sadler.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3105-6_23

M. Dunbar (1957) called attention to the existence of a small circular polynya about 50 m in diameter in Cambridge Fiord in northern Baffin Island for which there was no obvious explanation. Other small polynyas are known in arctic fjords which are usually the result of turbulent mixing in areas of strong currents (Sadler 1974), but Cambridge Fiord is 100 km long, its tidal range is small, and the polynya is situated within 300 m of the delta face at the head of the fjord so that strong turbulence is very unlikely. The annual reappearance of the polynya in late winter is confirmed by a series of aerial survey photographs taken by the Royal Canadian Air Force between 1952 and 1957 and also by reports from Inuit hunters from Pond Inlet. It is first seen within about two weeks of 15 March appearing in exactly the same position each year as a circle with a diameter of about 40 m. Over a period of about a week, a lead extends from the polynya to the shore and open water is visible in the tide crack for several hundred metres either side of the shore end of the lead. The lead, unlike the polynya, changes its position from year to year, but once formed it remains fixed until general break-up (Figure 1).