Massive ground ice of glacial meltwater origin in raised marine-deltaic sediments, Fosheim Peninsula, high Arctic Canada

Abstract

In the Canadian high Arctic, tabular massive ground ice is found extensively throughout the Eureka Sound Lowlands (ESL). This study evaluates the development of tabular massive ice in raised marine-deltaic sediments of the ESL based on new cryostratigraphic data from sites found between the coastline and the Holocene marine limit. At all sites, massive ice is found below laminated fine-grained marine sediments, and the upper contact between the ice and the overlying marine sediments is conformable and gradational. The concentration of major ions in the massive ice is orders of magnitude higher than expected for glacial ice, but Na/Cl molar ratios vary following elevation: the higher-elevation site has ratios similar to glacial ice, but sites at lower elevations have ratios closer to seawater. The δ18O values of the ice indicate that the main source of water is glacial meltwater but the δD-δ18O regression slope values suggest that the ice formed in an open system while receiving an influx that had a substantially different isotopic signature than the initial reservoir. The development of massive ice in the marine-deltaic sediments involves glacial meltwater recharging an aquifer beneath the Holocene marine sediments with a contribution of 1–10% of seawater.