Transcript

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[title: parkscanada.gc.ca]

[researchers walk outside polar bear fence at Wapusk base camp]
[text screen: Wapusk Isostatic Rebound]

[ecologist John Sweetman and colleagues doing water sampling at lake’s edge]
John Sweetman: One interesting thing about the park is that in the last ice age it was covered by the Laurentide ice sheet and so the weight of the glacier actually depressed this ground below sea level and this was all under water at some point and slowly, now that the glacier is gone, the ground has been rising. It’s called isostatic rebound, and so every year, the park actually gains a little bit of ground.

[aerial view over series of frozen lakes stretching off to the horizon]
John’s voice off camera: and when you fly over you can actually see a bunch of former beach ridges where you gain almost I think a meter.

[John and researchers collecting water samples]
John: I think this is the, in the world, this is an area where you get the most isostatic rebound because of all that weight, the Laurentide ice sheet was actually centered on this area, and so we’re actually gaining a little bit of land and so each year you get one of these little beach ridges, and between these beach ridges, you get these lakes forming.

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