Huge glacial ice chunk hampers Iqaluit gravel pit

The future of Iqaluit’s main source of gravel is in question after scientists studying permafrost discovered a huge chunk of ice lurking just beneath the surface of the Trail area gravel pit.

“Massive ice of an unknown thickness was also found near the surface in one of the gravel pits,” says a summary of the study, headed by David Mate, a researcher with Natural Resources Canada.

Meagan Leach, the city’s engineering director, said the city is flying a private-sector expert to examine the site and determine if the ice is a problem.

“We have found out that there is some ice conditions there in terms of possible glacial ice in the trail area deposit that we had not been aware of previously,” she said. “Right now we don’t know what that means.”

Leach said the gravel pit is now open after being closed to contractors for a few days.

Contractors can haul gravel once again, but the access road to the pit remains closed to the general public.

That’s because city crews need to fix the road’s shoulder. Leach said it’s not yet clear whether that damage is related to the underground ice.

Mate’s findings were part of a study of the impact of climate change on permafrost in Pangnirtung and Iqaluit. The idea was to help Nunavut communities plan ways to adapt to climate change.

Last year Mate and researchers from Laval University placed sensors and drilled core samples in an effort to determine how quickly the permafrost underneath Iqaluit is warming up.

The trail deposit opened in 2007 at a cost of nearly $1 million. It was forecast to contain about 15 to 20 years worth of gravel.

The city eventually plans to connect the existing road to a much a larger deposit lying seven kilometres farther out.

Between 2005 and 2006, workers with what was then called Indian and Northern Affairs Canada drilled more than 50 test pits up to 1.5 metres deep.

At the time, city councillors were more concerned the pit would contain industrial pollutants like the ones that forced the closure of a gravel pit in the city’s North 40 area.