Research Article

Paleo-Hydrothermal Predecessor to Perennial Spring Activity in Thick Permafrost in the Canadian High Arctic, and Its Relation to Deep Salt Structures: Expedition Fiord, Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut

Figure 12

(a) Model for the perennial springs (PSS) as first published by Andersen et al. [7] with fluid recharge from glacial lakes through permeable evaporite (salt) diapirs, shallow circulation, and continuous escape. (b) Proposed model for White Glacier vein array (WGVA). Overpressured hot basinal fluids expelled episodically through faults from under the salt canopy during tectonic compression of the Eurekan Orogeny (hypothetical subsurface structure modified from [6]). (c) Proposed hypothetical model for the perennial springs, where fluids have a mixed origin and escape marginally to evaporite (salt-anhydrite-gypsum) diapirs through plumbing systems established during tectonic deformation (b). Not to scale. See text for discussion including description of lithologies.
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