EventCanada’s sole freshwater‑on‑saltwater epishelf lake on Ellesmere Island drained into the Arctic Ocean after the Milne Ice Shelf broke in July 2020. The collapse removed over 40 % of the lake’s surface in two days, and the 4,000‑year‑old ecosystem disappeared within months.
A lake on Canada’s Milne Ice Sheet collapsed in July 2020, losing over 40% of its surface in two days and has since vanished, underscoring rapid ice sheet changes.
Canada’s Milne Ice Shelf has lost its last known epishelf lake, a unique Arctic ecosystem that once formed between the ice and ocean. The lake’s disappearance underscores rapid changes threatening fragile polar habitats.
Milne Fiord’s long‑standing epishelf lake on Ellesmere Island drained away in 2020 after the Milne Ice Shelf broke, ending Canada’s only freshwater‑on‑saltwater lake and wiping out a 4,000‑year‑old dual‑ecosystem that had fed nearby marine life.
A new study shows that Canada’s last epishelf lake, which drained into the Arctic Ocean after the 2020 collapse of the Milne Ice Shelf, is permanently lost and will not recover, underscoring the ongoing loss of fragile Arctic ecosystems.
Canada’s final epishelf lake, a freshwater body formed by the Milne Ice Sheet dam at a fjord mouth, drained in months, permanently eliminating a unique Arctic ecosystem.
Canada’s sole Arctic epishelf lake has disappeared, underscoring the fragility of millennia‑old Arctic ecosystems to rapid change.
