The Barnes ice cap, a remnant of the Laurentide ice sheet that sprawled over the US during the Pleistocene age, is a bowling-pin-shaped glacier on Canada’s Baffin Island. Seen here in early September 2010, it shows a portion of the ice cap near its south-eastern end, with Gee Lake sitting immediately off the glacier. Resembling a clamshell, grooves run roughly east-west on the glacier surface. Rather than appearing pristine white, the ice and snow is banded with dust layers spanning vast time periods. By studying such ice cores containing these dust layers, scientists can learn about ancient climates
The Guardian
Comments