The burial of ice in the proglacial environment on Bylot Island, Arctic Canada

In the proglacial environment on Bylot Island there are many occurrences of buried ice. Ground-penetrating radar and remote sensing techniques were combined with standard field observations to examine the processes and settings associated with the burial of surface ice, and the potential for preservation of buried ice. Of the different types of surface ice present (i.e. glacier, icing, permanent snow bank), glaciers were found to have the greatest potential for becoming buried, through sediment concentration at the surface during the melt-out of sediment-laden ice. A number of lateral and end moraines were found to have cores of glacial ice over 10 m thick. Deltaic sedimentation was also found to be effective at preserving buried glacial ice; however, the occurrence of this depositional setting is infrequent. The burial of icing and permanent snow banks was found not to occur to any great extent owing to their dynamic and generally erosional settings. Ground ice on Bylot Island is readily preserved owing to the cold ground temperatures. However, in a few locations recent fluvial activity had exposed massive ice bodies, resulting in the initiation of retrogressive thaw flows. Evidence of past thermokarst activity is widespread, but no evidence of current activity was discovered.