A Small Glacier as an Index of Regional Mass Balance: Baby Glacier, Axel Heiberg Island, 1959-1992

Baby Glacier, Axel Heiberg Island, N.W.T., Canada is a small (0.6 km2), high-latitude (79⚬N), high-altitude (700-1200 m) glacier with a mass balance record extending from 1959-60 to the present. The record demonstrates shrinkage of the glacier, but a statistically significant trend is not evident. C...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inGeografiska annaler. Series A, Physical geography Vol. 80; no. 1; pp. 37 - 50
Main Authors Adams, W. P., Cogley, J. G., Ecclestone, M. A., Demuth, M. N.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography 01.01.1998
Blackwell
Svenska sällskapet för antropologi och geografi
Subjects
Bgi / Prodig
Cirque glaciers
Climate change
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
External geophysics
Glacial ablation
Glacial accumulation
Glacial landforms
Glacial melting
Glacier mass balance
Glaciers
Hydrometeorology
Mass balance
Nivology. Glaciology
Physical geography
Snow
Snow. Ice. Glaciers
Canada
Arctic Region
North America
America
Northwest Territories
Mass balance
Glacier
Equilibrium line
Climate modification
Glacier mass balance
Latitude
Glacier fluctuation
Climatic variation
Altitude
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Summary:Baby Glacier, Axel Heiberg Island, N.W.T., Canada is a small (0.6 km2), high-latitude (79⚬N), high-altitude (700-1200 m) glacier with a mass balance record extending from 1959-60 to the present. The record demonstrates shrinkage of the glacier, but a statistically significant trend is not evident. Correlations are strong between the mass balance of Baby Glacier and that of the nearby and much larger White Glacier, and also those of even larger, more distant glaciers. Thus programmes of measurement on small, simple ice bodies such as Baby Glacier can be representative of a large region. However, inter-annual changes are more accentuated for Baby Glacier. Baby Glacier does not meet all of the usual criteria for a representative glacier, but it straddles the regional equilibrium zone, a fact which helps to offset the disadvantages of its small size and limited altitudinal range. The equilibrium zone deserves to be an important focus for studies of high-arctic mass balance, with the aim of facilitating future measurement programmes which will rely on satellite remote sensing.
ISSN:0435-3676
1468-0459
DOI:10.1111/1468-0459.00025