This was the last lake of its kind in Canada. Now it's gone.

Jérémie Bonneau, the lead author and an assistant professor at Laval University in Quebec City, said its loss is sad, as the Milne Fiord epishelf lake on Ellesmere Island in Nunavut was "the last thing like that in Canada."

"Suddenly, it's … drained away and then everything that was living in there is gone."

Bonneau noted that the complete disappearance of a once common phenomenon shows how a warming climate is transforming the Arctic.

While scientists had previously reported the lake's demise , the new study, recently published in the journal Scientific Reports , details how it happened and says the irreversible loss "marks a regime shift and the end of a 4000-year era."

Major ice shelf lake in Canada has disappeared