The Ice-Cored Moraines of Akudnirmuit Glacier, Cumberland Peninsula, Baffin Island, N. W. T., Canada

Abstract

The Akudnirmuit Glacier, a small localized ice body during late-Wisconsin and Neoglacial times, deposited five morainal systems in the hanging cross valley between the heads of Narpaing and Quajon fiords. The inner four of these moraines are ice-cored and the glacier's terminus is covered by ablation till. The outermost morainal system, pre-Altithermal in age, has no ice core, indicating that conditions during the Altithermal were such that the former ice core did not survive this period. Currently, the ice cores are down-wasting. This is attested to by the presence of kettle lakes, the amount of stream dissection, the numerous slides occurring at the debris/ice interface, collapse features, and thermistor data. Many lichen-covered boulders at the bases of the moraines indicate that the ice-cored deposits were stable until quite recently. Thermistor data indicate that even with a thin debris cover much less heat is conducted into the ice of the moraines than into a debris-free site on a nearby glacier.