Ice River Spring is the highest latitude perennial spring known. Located in the polar desert of Canada’s northern Ellesmere Island, the spring carves a gully remarkably similar to some seen on Mars.
A spring that flows year-round on Ellsmere Island in the high Canadian Arctic may be an analog for some types of gullies on Mars, according to a newly published paper in the journal Geology. A team of geologists led by Stephen Grasby (Geological Survey of Canada) reports that the spring, dubbed Ice River Spring, is highest-latitude perennial spring known on Earth.
The spring water discharges at a 300-meter (1,000 foot) elevation from semi-compacted sediments on a south-facing (21° slope) mountain slope. The spring water emerges at a temperature of 9° C (48° F), despite being in a region where winter air temperatures drop as low as –50° C (–58° F). The spring flows with a volume of about 520 liters (137 gallons) per second.
Detailed geochemical studies of the spring water show that the waters originate from the surface and circulate down as deep as 3 kilometers (2 miles) before returning through thick (400 m or 1,300 ft) permafrost as a spring. This points to a much more active hydrological system in polar regions than previously thought possible, perhaps driven by glacial meltwater.
The scientists report, “Active erosion at the spring outlet forms gullies with alcove-channel-apron morphology, remarkably similar to archetypal gullies observed on mid-latitude regions of Mars.”