Glacier-derived permafrost ground ice, Bylot Island, Nunavut

Abstract:

Massive icy bodies are important components of permafrost geosystems. In situ freezing of water in the ground by ice-segregation processes forms most of these icy bodies. Other hypotheses for the origin of massive ice include the burial of ice (e.g. glacier, snow, lake, river, sea). The analysis of ground-ice characteristics can give numerous clues about the geomorphologic processes and the thermal conditions at the time when permafrost developed. Massive underground ice therefore shows a great potential as a natural archive of the earth’s past climate. Identifying the origin of massive ice is a challenge for permafrost science since the different types of massive ice remain difficult to distinguish on the sole basis of field observations. There is actually no clear method to accurately assess the origin of massive ice and identification criteria need to be defined. The present study uses physico-chemical techniques to characterize buried glacier ice observed on Bylot Island, Nunavut. Combined to the analysis of cryostratigraphy, massive-ice cores crystallography and high-resolution imagery of the internal structure of the ice cores were obtained using micro-computed tomography techniques. These techniques are well suited for detailed descriptions (shape, size, orientation) of crystals, gas inclusions and sediment inclusions. Oxygen and hydrogen isotopes ratios of massive-ice cores were also obtained using common equilibrium technique. Preliminary results suggest the occurrence of two types of buried massive-ice of glacial origin similar to those found on contemporary glaciers: 1) Englacial ice: clear to whitish ice, with large crystals (cm) and abundant gas bubbles at crystal intersections; 2) Basal glacier ice: ice-rich, banded, micro-suspended to suspended cryostructures and ice-rich lenticular to layered cryostructures, with small ice crystals (mm) and a few disseminated gas bubbles. Glacier-derived permafrost contains antegenetic ice, which is ice that predates the aggradation of the permafrost. Remnants of glacier ice represent unique environmental archives and offer the possibility to reconstruct climate anterior to the formation of permafrost.