2020 Dickinson Sidkap Hackweek: Glacier changes near Canada’s most northern community, Grise Fiord, Nunavut, Canada

Abstract:

Grise Fiord is the northernmost community in Canada and depends on glacier meltwater for much of its freshwater supply. In 1959, the peninsula on which the community is located hosted 14 glaciers within a 25 km distance, including one ice cap (172 km²) containing two tidewater glaciers. To quantify area changes of these glaciers, we manually outlined the glaciers in QGIS using imagery from Landsat 1, 5, 7 and 8 from 1974 to 2019, and aerial photography from 1959. These outlines show a total area loss of 39.8 km² from 1959 to 2019, which is a 19.7% decrease in total ice area at an average rate of 0.7 km² a^-1. This included the complete loss of 6 of the 14 glaciers in the study area over the 60-year study period, resulting in an area loss of 2.8 km². Between 1959 and 1984, the overall rate of area reduction was 1.0 km² a^-1, in contrast to rates of 0.6 km² a^-1 between 1984 and 2002, and 1.3 km² a^-1 between 2002 and 2019. The ice cap lost 27.3 km² in total area between 1959 and 2019 at an average rate of 0.5 km² a^-1, and of that, 18.9 km² was lost from 2002 to 2019 at a rate of 1.1 km² a^-1. Overall, glacier area loss each year is increasing, and the glaciers are melting at a faster rate compared to the beginning of the study in 1959. Given present rates of melting, the small remnant glacier that presently supplies Grise Fiord with water will be extinct by the late 2030s.