Natural Resources Canada > Earth Sciences Sector > Priorities > Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation > Climate Change in Canada
Degrees of Variation : Climate change in Nunavut Glacier and sea level rise
Monitors of climate change...
(Canadian Ice Service) |
Glaciers and ice caps respond to the effects of summer temperature and annual precipitation. As a result, they advance and retreat in association with changes in the climate. These changes give us information about climate differences from year to year, as well as help us determine longer term climate trends.
Did you know?
Canada contains the largest area of glaciers and ice caps outside Greenland and Antarctica.
What the glaciers are telling us...
Records from ice caps in Nunavut show significant annual variations, but no obvious trend over the past thirty years; however, South Melville Ice Cap in the western Arctic (N.W.T.) is beginning to show a trend toward more summer melt.
Flooding potential...
Glacier dammed lake draining into Leaf Bay
(D.G. Hodgson, GSC 2000-056B) |
As in the photo to the right, glaciers may act as a barrier to water drainage and create glacier-dammed lakes. With the predicted melting expected from climate change, these glacier dams may break and result in flooding of land downstream.
Did you know?
If the Greenland Ice Sheet melts, it contains enough ice to raise the global sea level by 6-7m.
(Source: Shaw et al., 1998) |
Rising sea levels...
As the climate warms, water levels in the world's oceans are expected to rise. The expansion of sea water as it warms and the melting of ice caps and glaciers will contribute to this global increase in mean sea levels.
Variations in sea level...
Regional differences in sea level will depend on average sea level, as well as on regional geological adjustments. During the last ice age, the land was pushed down under the weight of the glaciers. As the glaciers retreated, the land started to rebound to its original level. Most areas in the Arctic are still slowly rebounding so increases in global sea-level rise may not be much of a problem. On eastern Baffin Island and the northwest Arctic Islands, the land is no longer rebounding so these coasts are more at risk.
Impacts of sea level rise...
Sea level rise, more extreme weather, and a loss of sea ice will contribute to more erosion and flooding along vulnerable Arctic shorelines. Higher sea levels with less ice cover will expose more of the coast to both normal waves and more powerful storm waves.
Thule site at risk of erosion.
(P.D. Sutherland) |
Did you know?
Increased coastal erosion may result in the loss of many Dorset and Thule archaeological sites.
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