Cañon Fiord’s Whirling Waters

During the 2022 summer melt season, sediment plumes and fractured sea ice traced swirling eddies in a branch of the Nansen Sound fjord system. Satellite images captured a section of Cañon Fiord—about 115 kilometers southeast of the Eureka research station on west-central Ellesmere Island—showing waters that flow into Greely Fiord, connect to Nansen Sound, and ultimately reach the Arctic Ocean.

The scenes were recorded by the OLI on Landsat 8 on August 9, 2022. Physical oceanographer Igor Dmitrenko notes that turbidity remains low while the fjords are ice-covered: freshwater runoff and its sediment drop sharply and roughly 2-meter-thick sea ice shields the surface from wind, suppressing the mixing that would resuspend particles.

In summer the ice breaks up and drifts with currents and wind; some pieces are likely icebergs calved from nearby outlet glaciers. Other images show sediment suspended in the water tracing the flow.

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