Largest High-Arctic Lake Melting From Geothermal Heat, Not Global Warming

Recent changes to the world’s largest high-Arctic lake, Lake Hazen, are the result of increased heat flow from the region’s known geological features, and not the from global warming as per numerous alarmist media reports.

Evidence supporting this contention is abundant and reliable.

Northeast Canada’s Lake Hazen lies adjacent to the world-class Greenland / Iceland Mantle Plume(Figure 2).Mantle plumes are narrow streams of deep inner earth sourced hot rock that spread like a ‘mushroom’ cap beneath the Earth’s surface. They act to significantly warm overlying rocks, warm and chemically alter overlying oceans and melt overlying ice masses.

Research by the University of Kansas has confirmed the results of three previous studies all indicating that geothermal heat flow from Greenland / Iceland Mantle Plume is the dominant and likely sole cause of anomalous Greenland ice sheet melting. (see here, here, here, and here).

The ground warming and ice melting power of this geological feature are here estimated to cover 720,000 square miles extending from the northern edge of Ellesmere Island to the eastern shore of Iceland.

Figure 2.)  Location map of High Arctic Lake Hazen and surrounding major heat flowing geological features, most notably the massive deep inner earth reaching Greenland/Iceland Mantle Plume.

Lake Hazen is located within and owes its very existence to, a highly faulted portion of the Arctic (see here). Movement along one of these faults, known as the Lake Hazen Thrust, acted to down drop and form an enclosed long linear valley that is home to Lake Hazen.

Other geological indications of high heat flow in the Lake Hazen area include:  Surface Lava Flows in northern Ellesmere Island, High Surface Temperatures in southern and northern Ellesmere Island, the Wegener Left Lateral Fault, and the Borup Fiord Pass Sulfur-Rich Hot Spring(Figure 2).

There are a total of four mineral-rich springs located in the Lake Hazen area (see here, here, here, here, and Figure 2). It is here contended that the springs are geothermally sourced from deep inner earth reaching geological features.

Although the temperature of the spring’s water is cool at their surface discharge points, it is likely that at slightly deeper depths the spring water is warmer the result of deep inner earth geothermal heat flow.

The low temperature of the springs surface discharge water is almost certainly related to the cooling effect of overlying surface glacial water. The unusual hot spring like mineral and biological content of the spring’s surface water and position of the springs above faults supports this interpretation.

Discovery of two liquid freshwater lakes beneath 1,500 feet of glacial ice in the Devon Ice Shelf is even more proof that bedrock heat flow is at work in the greater northeast Canadian Arctic region (see here).

These subglacial lakes are here interpreted to be generated by geothermal heat flow from deep inner reaching faults.  The long linear shape and orientation of the subglacial lakes perfectly match the surface trend of faults that abut against the Devon Ice Sheet (Figure 3).

Figure 3.) Geological map of Devon Island (left) and subglacial bedrock topographic map of newly discovered freshwater lakes (after Okulitch 1991, see here, here, and here).

Geologists had for many years suggested that the well-documented existence of several subglacial liquid freshwater lakes beneath Antarctica’s 7,000 feet of glacial ice was proof of a significant underlying heat flowing geological feature.

Recent research by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and others has proven that there is, in fact, a 620,000-square-mile mantle plume beneath Antarctica (see here, here, and here).

Other recent research has shown that this giant mantle plume is responsible for generating a continent-wide and interconnected system of subglacial liquid freshwater lake and streams (Figure 1 atop this article).

It is here suggested that discovery of two subglacial lakes in the greater Lake Hazen area may be the proverbial tip of the iceberg concerning the discovery of a geological heat flow induced and vast interconnected system of lakes and streams in other Arctic regions.

In summary, it is here suggested that evidence presented in this article strongly supports the notion that geologically induced high heat flow is affecting the ice extent and biological systems of the worlds largest high Arctic lake and not climate change.

James Edward Kamis is a retired professional Geologist with 42 years of experience, a B.S. in Geology from Northern Illinois University (1973), and M.S. in geology from Idaho State University (1977) who has always been fascinated by the connection between Geology and Climate. More than 13 years of research/observation have convinced him that the Earth’s Heat Flow Engine, which drives the outer crustal plates, is an important driver of the Earth’s climate as per his Plate Climatology Theory.