Stratified Water of a Glacial Lake in Northern Ellesmere Island

Abstract

Antoinette Bay constitutes the central arm of Greely Fiord and extends 40 km. east-northeastward from its junction with Tanquary Fiord in about 80°50'N, 79°W. A large tidewater glacier, flowing northwestward from the Mer de Glace Agassiz to the southeast, has blocked off the head of the bay (or, more properly, fiord) and separates it from the long narrow lake that is the natural extension of the fiord to the east. We visited Antoinette Bay and the lake on June 2 and 3, 1963 during the course of an oceanographic traverse over the sea-ice from the field station of the Defence Research Board at the head of Tanquary Fiord. Antoinette Bay is a typical steep-sided fiord; a single sounding, taken 10 km. from its mouth, showed no bottom at 240 m. The lake, which is unnamed, was visited on the chance of finding interesting structural and temperature conditions in the lake water. ...