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Where is it?The Oobloyah Valley on Ellesmere Island , Canada [ 80.89641579 , -82.79273667 ]
What ’s in the photo?The Nukapingwa , Arklio , Perkeo , and Midget glaciers
This icy quartet is part of a network of thousands of glaciers across Ellesmere Island, which are vital to sustaining life in this barren landscape.
Which satellite took the photo?NASA ’s Earth Observing-1 ( EO-1 )
When was it taken?June 12 , 2012
This salient satellite photo shows a IV of near - identical glaciers perched between craggy peaks on a free island in the Canadian Arctic . The elongated icing mass , which are threatened by human - causedclimate change , avail spark new life in the border " arctic desert " and have provided researcher with rare opportunities to read some of the world ’s hardiest plant specie .
Two species of plant,Epilobium latifolium(left) andSalix arctica(right), quickly colonize the bare ground exposed by the retreating glaciers.
The four glaciers — Nukapingwa , Arklio , Perkeo , and Midget ( from leave to right in the image ) — are each around 2 miles ( 3.2 kilometers ) long and around 2,000 understructure ( 600 meters ) widely on ordinary . They are settle along the northern ridge of the Oobloyah Valley at the heart of Ellesmere Island , the 10th - largest island on Earth and Canada ’s most northerly landmass .
Ellesmere Island is a tricky place for life to prosper . Despite remaining largely ice - free all year round , temperatures cast between 37.9 level Fahrenheit ( 3.3 degrees Celsius ) in the summer and minus 36 F ( minus 38 C ) in the wintertime . The area also receives less than 2.5 inches ( 6.4 centimeters ) of precipitation each twelvemonth — make it a polar desert , grant toNASA ’s Earth Observatory . As a result , only144 people live on the island(as of 2021 ) , despite the land mass being around the same sizing as the U.K ..
However , seasonal meltwater from glaciers like those in the picture provide areas like the Oobloyah Valley with enough moisture to sustain a sparse covering of resilient botany . This supply the base of a food vane that supports arctic hares , muskoxen , wolves andpolar bears . ( The name Ellesmere intend " land of muskoxen " in French . )
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At the final end of each glacier ( near the bottom of the satellite image ) , slight crescents of uncut jagged ground , hump as moraine , surround the tongue of ice . moraine are areas of roil - up ground bequeath behind as the glaciers crawfish out up the vale ’s ridgeline , consort to theU.S. Geological Survey . These areas are altogether destitute of life when they are first freed from the glaciers ' huge weight , which wee them the consummate testbed for scientists to learn how polar plants colonise new land .
In a2013 study , research worker from Japan transmit extensive fieldwork at the moraine surrounding the Arklio glacier ( second from right ) and found that two plants — Dwarf fireweed ( Epilobium latifolium ) and a type of creeping willow tree ( Salix arctica ) — promptly colonize the space , allowing other species to finally follow courting .
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Unfortunately , homo - do climate alteration is cause glaciers like these to retreat much faster than normal . A2018 studythat compared artificial satellite photos of more than 1,700 glaciers on Ellesmere Island , found that the ice masses had jointly lost around 6 % of their total ice between 1999 and 2015 .
While pull away glaciers could put up more space for plants to grow in the scant term , the release of trash will eventually shorten the amount of crucial meltwater that is release into the border polar desert , potentially jeopardizing the entire Ellesmere ecosystem in the longsighted run .
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