The Devon Ice Cap is an
ice cap on eastern
Devon Island,
Nunavut, Canada, covering an area of over . The highest point on Devon Island is found at the summit of the ice cap, with an elevation of . The ice cap has a maximum thickness of ,
and has been steadily shrinking since 1985.
The first ascent of the Devon Ice Cap was by
Alfred Herbert Joy and his Inuit companions in 1926.
Geology
The Devon Ice Cap and the
Agassiz Ice Cap on the neighboring
Ellesmere Island are two of the largest ice caps in the
Arctic Cordillera in the Canadian Arctic, and consist of a substantial fraction of ice not locked away in the
Antarctic and
Greenland ice sheets.
As such, should the entire Devon Ice Cap melt due to global warming, the ice will contribute approximately 1 centimeter to global
sea level rise
Globally, sea levels are rising due to human-caused climate change. Between 1901 and 2018, the globally averaged sea level rose by , or 1–2 mm per year on average.IPCC, 2019Summary for Policymakers InIPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cry ...
.
The Devon Ice Cap has a
dome-like structure and a maximum elevation of 1921 m above sea level at its summit, and the maximum ice thickness is 880 m.
There are two distinct regions in the Devon Ice Cap: a ice cap and a ice-covered region in the west that is geologically inactive.
Beneath the ice, two hypersaline subglacial lakes have been identified via
RES in bedrock troughs.
Subglacial valleys have also been found, and such
structures
A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...
are thought to control the outflow of ice.
See also
*
Retreat of glaciers since 1850
*
List of Ultras of North America
References
External links
"Devon Ice Cap" on ''Mountain-forecast.com''
Ice caps of Canada
Bodies of ice of Qikiqtaaluk Region
Arctic Cordillera
Devon Island
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