Recently drained tundra lake

Location: Southwestern Nunavut, Canada

This photograph is a low-altitude view of a small, recently drained, shallow tundra lake between 62 to 63°N latitude, west of Hudson Bay in southwestern Nunavut, Canada. The draining is so recent that patterned ground has not yet begun to form, although mudboils can be seen in the upper part of the photo, above the shoreline. This process is a very common occurrence among the millions of lakes in the tundra, all of which are trending toward eradication by sedimentation or organic growth infilling, or are cutting through their dams of unconsolidated sediment, as in this case. The sediment exposed in the drained lake basin is often a fine silt with limited organic components.

Updated 04/09/2010 AW