Cape Chidley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Capes in the Americas
Cape Chidley is a headland located on the eastern shore of Killiniq Island, Canada at the northeastern tip of the Labrador Peninsula.
Cape Chidley is located on the interprovincial boundary between the province of Newfoundland and Labrador and the territory of Nunavut. It forms the northernmost point of Labrador and the southeasternmost point of Nunavut.
Sometimes spelled Cape Chudleigh, Cape Chidley is sometimes misrepresented as being located on the interprovincial border between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador. Newfoundland and Labrador, having been a separate country at the time that Canada's Arctic islands were assigned in this manner, shared a boundary on Killiniq Island as the territory of Labrador included the entire Atlantic watershed of the Labrador Peninsula and its islands.
As such, the northern and western part of Killiniq Island under Nunavut's jurisdiction drains into Ungava Bay and the Hudson Strait. Thus Cape Chidley is also the terminus of the Northern Divide, which separates the Arctic Ocean watershed from the Atlantic Ocean watershed. (Some sources include Hudson Bay in the Atlantic Ocean watershed, though the Northern Divide has been long established and places Hudson Bay with the Arctic Ocean watershed.) The cape marks the south end of the entrance to the Hudson Strait, opposite Resolution Island.
The closest community to Cape Chidley is Port Burwell, Nunavut. Killiniq Island itself is separated from mainland North America by the narrow McLelan Strait.
The Torngat Mountains run along the coast of Labrador and terminate at Killiniq Island. The top of the knoll forming the headland at Cape Chidley has an elevation of 350 m making the cape considerably higher than either of its two flanking headlands.
[edit] Further reading
- Atlantic Geoscience Society, and Geological Association of Canada. From Cape Chidley to Cape Race: Exciting New Developments in Mineral and Petroleum Exploration. AGS, 1996.
[edit] External links
- Pictures of Cape Chidley
- Interactive satellite view of Cape Chidley from TerraServer (second from the north of the four pointing roughly eastwards)
 |
This Newfoundland and Labrador geographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 |
This Nunavut geographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
