WHITEHORSE — A cave-like tunnel formed by a retreating glacier in Yukon has collapsed, months after hikers were warned to stay clear of the increasingly unstable formation.
The ice cave near Kluane National Park, about 170 kilometres west of Whitehorse, has been a popular hiking destination for years but an expert with Yukon Geological Survey says a new photo confirms the tunnel is gone.
Geologist Jeff Bond says only a remnant of one side of the arch remains.
Hikers used to be able to walk beneath the huge, bluish formation but warnings were issued earlier this year about the tunnel's stability when massive chunks of ice began to fall from the underside.
Bond says the tunnel, which was formed by water flowing under the receding glacier, is "doing what it was supposed to do, which is melt, get thinner and collapse."
The tunnel spanned a creek bed about 13 kilometres outside Haines Junction and Bond estimates it was once part of an active glacier between 100 and 400 years old.
"The tunnel has always been sort of active, even when the glacier was at that location," says Bond.
"It's been around for, probably, a few hundred years. As we know it, that tunnel has likely been there for a few decades, for sure."
The glacier has since receded toward Mount Archibald and the Kluane icefields leading to Mount Logan, Canada's highest peak.