The island, which had detached itself from the ice shelf on Ellesmore Island in the Canadian
arctic archipelago, was used as a laboratory for seismic studies of the
Arctic Ocean floor, as well as charting currents, pollution, winds and ice
structure.
It emphasises that there is a strong internal relationship between the formation, stability and extent of sea ‐ ice and the
structure of the upper layer of the
Arctic ocean: it is the relative area and depth of low - salinity
arctic water above the halocline that are paramount to ice formation and its summer survival.