Barnes Ice Cap

{{Short description|Ice cap in Nunavut, Canada}} {{Infobox glacier | name = Barnes Ice Cap | type = [[Ice cap]] | location =[[Baffin Island]] | map = Canada Nunavut | map_caption =Location in Nunavut, Canada | coordinates = {{coord|70|00|N|73|30|W|region:CA-NU_dim:30000_source:http://www4.rncan.gc.ca/search-place-names/unique/OABPZ|format=dms|display=inline,title}} | mark = Blue_pog.svg | image = Barnes Ice Cap 2019-08-10 Sentinel-2 L2A Highlight Optimized Natural Color.jpg | caption = [[Sentinel-2]] image (2019) }}

The '''Barnes Ice Cap''' is an [[ice cap]] located in central [[Baffin Island]], [[Nunavut]], Canada.

==Geography== It covers close to {{convert|6000|km2|abbr=on}} in the area of the [[Baffin Mountains]]. It has been thinning due to regional warming.<ref>{{Citation | last1 = Sneed | first1 = William | last2 = Hooke | first2 = Roger | last3 = Hamilton | first3 = Gordon | title = Thinning of the south dome of Barnes Ice Cap, Arctic Canada, over the past two decades | journal = GeoScienceWorld | volume = v.36, no. 1 | pages = 71–74 |date=January 2008 | issue = 1 | url = http://geology.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/36/1/71 | doi = 10.1130/G24013A.1| bibcode = 2008Geo....36...71S | url-access = subscription}} </ref> Between 2004 and 2006, the ice cap was thinning at a rate of {{convert|1|m|abbr=on}} per year.

The ice cap contains Canada's oldest ice, some of it being over 20,000 years old.<ref>{{Cite press release |title=Canada's oldest ice formation melting at alarming rate, scientists say |publisher=CanWest News Service |date=Jan 9, 2008 |url=http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/science/story.html?id=41aeca3c-30a6-4847-88cd-8b1bc8a29d9c |access-date=Jan 6, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511080544/http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/science/story.html?id=41aeca3c-30a6-4847-88cd-8b1bc8a29d9c |archive-date=2011-05-11 }} </ref> It is a remnant of the [[Laurentide Ice Sheet]], which covered most of Canada during the last [[glacial period]] of the Earth's [[Quaternary glaciation|current ice age]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/46304/barnes-ice-cap-baffin-island-canada|title=Barnes Ice Cap, Baffin Island, Canada|website=NASA Earth Observatory|date=2010-10-04|access-date=2024-11-05|quote=A remnant of the Laurentide Ice Sheet that sprawled over North America during the Pleistocene Age, the Barnes Ice Cap is a bowling-pin-shaped glacier on Canada’s Baffin Island.}}</ref> Generator Lake is located at the southeastern end of the ice cap.<ref name=NRCan>{{Cite web|url=https://geonames.nrcan.gc.ca/search-place-names/search|title=Place names - Query by name|first=Natural Resources Canada|last=Government of Canada|website=geonames.nrcan.gc.ca}}</ref>

==Exploration== A team from [[Laramie, Wyoming]], United States, made the first bicycle traverse of the Barnes Ice Cap in 1995.<ref name="auto">{{cite web | url=https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/exploration-survival/baffin-bay-tragedy-mike-moe-wyoming-alpine-club/ | title=Tragedy in Baffin Bay | date=14 February 2022 }}</ref> The team was sponsored by the Wyoming Alpine Club and included brothers Mike and Dan Moe — some of the first people to complete the Continental Divide mountain biking route from Canada to Mexico — along with Sharon Kava and Brad Humphrey.

After crossing the ice cap, the team abandoned their bikes and sleds at {{coord|70|31|43|n|73|18|42|w}} on August 22, 1995, to expedite their travel over boulder fields to Baffin Bay. They intended for the bikes to be picked up later. All members of the 1995 party died of hypothermia after an aluminum boat captained by Innumariik guide Jushua Ilauq of [[Clyde River (Baffin Island)|Clyde River]] was capsized by a breaching bowhead whale. Ilauq alone survived due to wearing a cold-weather survival suit, and lived until 2025.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://isaruit.ca/isaruit-staff/ | title=Meet the Isaruit Staff - Isaruit Inuit Arts | date=31 August 2021 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Kautaq Jushua Ilauq December 28, c.1950– February 12, 2025 |url=https://isaruit.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MEMORIALCARD-Jushua-Illauq.pdf |website=isaruit.ca}}</ref>

In 2009 geologist Kurt Refsnider stumbled upon the bikes by chance.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://krefs.blogspot.com/2010/12/coincidental-divide.html | title=Coincidental Divide }}</ref> The story of the expedition was chronicled by a childhood friend of Mike Moe, writer Mark Jenkins in ''[[Outside (magazine)|Outside]]'' magazine in 2006 and 2022.<ref name="auto"/><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/climbing/above-and-beyond/ | title=Above and Beyond | date=2 October 2006 }}</ref>

{| |- valign="top" |[[Image:Sea Ice off Baffin Island.jpg|thumb|280px|The Barnes Ice Cap on Baffin Island.]] |[[Image:Barnes Ice Cap, Baffin Island, Canada.jpg|thumb|A portion of the Barnes Ice Cap near its south-eastern end.]] |}

==See also== *[[List of glaciers]]

==References== {{Reflist}}

[[Category:Bodies of ice of Baffin Island]] [[Category:Arctic Cordillera]] [[Category:Ice caps of Canada]]