Milne Glacier, Northern Ellesmere Island, N.W.T., Canada: a Surging Glacier?

Abstract During the period 1966 to 1983 Milne Glacier advanced 4.25 km at a mean annual rate of 250 m a−1. Since surges commonly occur over a two or three year period the maximum rate of advance could have been greater than 2 km a−1. The glacier terminus has a number of features indicative of past surge behaviour. Of these, at least three looped moraines suggest surges of the main valley glacier and tributary glaciers. As Milne Glacier is a cold glacier, surges may possibly be thermally regulated Accumulation rates on the ice caps of northern Ellesmere Island are low hence a critical condition in the “reservoir area” will be only slowly attained. As a consequence the periodicity of surges in Milne Glacier and other High Arctic glaciers is expected to be high.