Primeval ice melts in Finnish Lapland

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The primeval ice in an ice cave on the isle of Korkia-Maura in Lake Inari has melted, turning into a pond of crystal water.
      Recent years’ mild winters as well as longer summer and autumn periods have been too much for the ice cover of the cave, which began to grow in the Little Ice Age some 500 to 1,000 years ago.
      Geologist Aimo Kejonen from the Geological Survey of Finland has been observing the ice cave for some twenty years, and according to him, one explanation for the melting of the ice cover is climate change.
     
”As a consequence of global warming, the cold reserves formed over the winter are smaller than before. The freezing mark on the wall appears to have come lower over the past few years”, he notes.
      Kejonen says that during the time he has been monitoring the cave, the ice layer has melted once before. It happened as a result of a really warm summer at the beginning of the 1990s, while this year the phenomenon was mainly attributable to plentiful rains.
     
Even tourists visiting the cave have contributed to the melting, having brought in their share of warmth.
      The melting of primeval ice creates a historic atmosphere in the cave, when only water dripping loudly from the ceiling some three metres above the water surface breaks the silence.
      The ice cave is around three metres in height and 15 metres in length. As far as is known, nobody has measured the depth of the water as yet, but Kejonen says that the ice thickness has been more than two metres at its best.
      The air in the ice cave is fresh, as the place is open at both ends, and the gusts of wind blowing outside can be felt as a perceptible draught inside the cave.
      The ice cave is located at the northern end of the isle of Korkia-Maura, and previously local residents used it in summer for storing food, including game and fish.
     
The water in the cave is not lake water, as the pool is several metres above the surface of Lake Inari.
      With the years, the ice expansion force has left distinct straight cross-directional cuts in the rocks. In many places these cuts are several metres in depth.
      The water pool in the ice cave is likely to freeze again soon, but it is also possible that it will melt again.
      ”It may be that the ice in the cave will thaw every year from now on”, Kejonen concludes.


Links:
  Geological Survey of Finland

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