Ice River Spring

Ice River Spring on Ellesmere Island in Nunavut, Canada, is a high-discharge perennial spring in the High Arctic that flows year-round despite extreme cold, thick permafrost, and winter surface temperatures that can fall to minus 50 degrees Celsius. Discovered in 2009, it was identified by 2014 as the highest-latitude perennial spring known. Rising from a south-facing mountain slope about 300 meters above sea level, it averages 9 degrees Celsius and about 520 liters of water per second. Study of the water showed it began at the surface, circulated deep underground, and returned upward through the cryosphere. Its self-carved gully also resembles gullies observed on Mars.

Nunavut · Canada