Mass: Quebec
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Mass: Quebec |
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The Quebec 1 and 2 mass balance sites were adjacent to one another. Quebec 1 was undeformed ice with an initial thickness of 0.85 m. Quebec 2 was thicker ice, a slight hummock. There were four thickness gauges at Quebec 1 (24, 56, 49, 321) and four gauges at Quebec 2 (12, 48, 99, 320). In addition, three gauges (139, 202, 203) were installed in first-year ice that started growing in January when a lead opened near Quebec. There is a record of Quebec 1 temperature and Quebec 2 temperature. Quebec 2 also had an above ice acoustic sensor that monitored changes in the position of the surface and a pressure sensor that measured changes in the overall mass balance of the floe. During the winter, a crack formed within a meter of the Quebec 1 thermistor string. Early in the summer this crack melted open. In early August 1998, Quebec broke away from the rest of the floe, ultimately drifting more than 3 km from the ship.
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Quebec 2 during installation in October 1997. The orange box contains a data logger. |
Quebec 1 (left) and Quebec 2 (right) on July 1. Ponds were starting. Note the crack by the Quebec 1 thermistor string. |
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Frozen, snow-covered crack near Quebec 1 thermistor string before the onset of melt. |
Photo from 25 July showing the same crack completely melted open. The many frozen cracks of winter transformed into nascent leads in summer. |
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Quebec 1 and 2 from the air on
16 July 1998 . The crack near the Quebec 1
thermistor string is melting open. 
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Quebec 1 and 2 from the air on 5 August 1998 . After the divergence event
of 2 August, Quebec became an island.