Queen Elizabeth Islands
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The Queen Elizabeth Islands (French: Îles de la Reine-Élisabeth; formerly Parry Islands or Parry Archipelago) are the northernmost cluster of islands in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, split between Nunavut and Northwest Territories in Northern Canada. The Queen Elizabeth Islands contain approximately 14% of the global glacier and ice cap area.[1]
Geography
The islands, together 419,061 km2 (161,800 sq mi)[2] in area, were renamed as a group after Elizabeth II on her coronation as Queen of Canada in 1953. Most are uninhabited although the Natural Resources Canada’s Climate Change Geoscience Program Earth Sciences Sector (ESS), has monitors on the islands.[3] In 1969 Panarctic Oils, now part of Suncor began operating exploration oil wells in the Sverdrup and Franklinian basins and planned on establishing its resource base in the Queen Elizabeth Islands. It ceased production in the 1970s. At the 2013 GeoConvention the Arctic Islands region were called Canada’s perpetual "last petroleum exploration frontier". Hogg and Enachescu argued that the development and implementation of advanced marine and land seismic technologies in Alaska, Northern Europe and Siberia could be modified for use in the Queen Elizabeth Islands.[4]
First sighted by Europeans in 1616, the Queen Elizabeth Islands were not fully explored and charted until the British Northwest Passage expeditions and later Norwegian exploration of the 19th century.
These islands were known as the Parry Archipelago for over 130 years. They were first named after British Arctic explorer Sir William Parry, who sailed there in 1820, aboard the Hecla. Since the renaming of the archipelago in 1953, the term Parry Islands continued to be used for its southwestern part (less Ellesmere Island and Sverdrup Islands). The regional break down of the archipelago is therefore as follows:
- Ellesmere Island
- Sverdrup Islands
- Parry Islands
Ellesmere Island is the northernmost and by far the largest. The Sverdrup Islands are located west of Ellesmere Island and north of Norwegian Bay. The remaining islands further south and west, but north of Lancaster Sound, Viscount Melville Sound and McClure Strait have been carrying the name Parry Islands, which name until 1953 had also included the Sverdrup Islands and Ellesmere Island. South of Lancaster Sound, Viscount Melville Sound and McClure Strait are the remaining islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.
Major islands
Many of the islands are among the largest in the world, the largest being Ellesmere Island. Other major islands include Amund Ringnes Island, Axel Heiberg Island, Bathurst Island, Borden Island, Cornwall Island, Cornwallis Island, Devon Island, Eglinton Island, Ellef Ringnes Island, Mackenzie King Island, Melville Island, and Prince Patrick Island.[2]
Smaller islands
Other smaller but notable islands include; Beechey Island (74°43′N 091°51′W / 74.717°N 91.850°W), which held the graves of Petty Officer John Torrington, Royal Marine Private William Braine, and Able Seaman John Hartnell, three members of Sir John Franklin's crew,[5][6] Hans Island (80°49′41″N 066°27′35″W / 80.82806°N 66.45972°W), a small, uninhabited barren knoll measuring 1.3 km2 (0.50 sq mi) whose ownership is disputed by Canada and Denmark,[7] the Cheyne Islands (76°18′22″N 097°31′12″W / 76.30611°N 97.52000°W), three small (0.73 km2 (0.28 sq mi) together) islands that are Important Bird Area (#NU049) and a Key Migratory Bird Terrestrial Habitat site (NU site 5)[8] and Skraeling Island (78°54′42″N 075°37′58″W / 78.91167°N 75.63278°W) an important archaeological site where Inuit (Dorset, Thule) and Norse artifacts have been found.[9] They consist of Silurian and Carboniferous rocks covered with tundra.
Population
With a population of less than 400, the islands are nearly uninhabited. There are only three permanently inhabited places in the islands. The two municipalities are the hamlets of Resolute (population 229 as of the 2006 census[10]), on Cornwallis Island, and Grise Fiord (population 141 as of the 2006 census),[11] on Ellesmere Island. Alert with a population of 5 as of the 2006 census[12] is an Environment Canada weather station, a Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) atmosphere monitoring laboratory on Ellesmere Island, has several temporary inhabitants due to the co-located CFS Alert. Eureka, a small research base on Ellesmere Island, has a population of zero but at least 8 staff on a continuous rotational basis.
Abandoned Permanent Settlement Seasonally Occupied
| Name | Image | Type | Island | Population | Established | Coordinates | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alert |  | Weather Station, Military Station | Ellesmere | 5 | 1950[Note 1] |
| |
| Alexandra Fiord | Science Research Station | Ellesmere | 0 | 1953 |
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| Camp Hazen | Warden Station | Ellesmere | 0 | 1957 |
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| Craig Harbour | Royal Canadian Mounted Police Detachment | Ellesmere | 0 |
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| Dundas Harbour | Ellesmere | 0 |
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| Eureka |  | Research Station | Ellesmere | 0 | 1947 |
| |
| Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station |  | Research Station | Devon | 0 | 1999 |
| |
| Fort Conger |  | Research Station | Ellesmere | 0 | 1883 |
| |
| Grise Fiord |  | Hamlet | Ellesmere | 130 | 1953 | 76°25′N 82°53′W / 76.417°N 82.883°W |
|
| Isachsen |  | Weather Station, Research Station | Ellef Ringnes | 0 | 1948 | 78°46′N 103°29′W / 78.767°N 103.483°W |
|
| McGill Arctic Research Station | Research Station | Axel Heiberg | 0 | 1959 | 79°20′N 91°58′W / 79.333°N 91.967°W |
| |
| Mould Bay | Weather Station, Airport | Prince Patrick | 0 | 1948 | 76°14′N 119°19′W / 76.233°N 119.317°W |
| |
| Resolute |  | Hamlet | Cornwallis | 229 | 1947 |
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Formerly manned stations were Mould Bay on Prince Patrick Island, Isachsen on Ellef Ringnes Island, and Fort Conger on Ellesmere Island.
Abandoned settlements are Dundas Harbour on Devon Island and Craig Harbour on Ellesmere Island.
Administration
Until 1999, the Queen Elizabeth Islands were part of the Baffin Region of the Northwest Territories.
With the creation of the Nunavut in 1999 all islands and fractions of islands of the archipelago east of the 110th meridian west became part of Qikiqtaaluk Region of the new territory, which was the major portion of the archipelago. The rest remained with the now-reduced Northwest Territories. Borden Island, Mackenzie King Island and Melville Island were divided between the two territories.
Prince Patrick Island, Eglinton Island and Emerald Island are the only notable islands that are now completely part of the Northwest Territories.
Below the level of the territory, there is the municipal level of administration. On that level, there are only two municipalities, Resolute and Grise Fiord, with an aggregate area of 450 km2 (170 sq mi) (0.11 percent of the area of the Queen Elizabeth Islands), but with most of the population of the archipelago (370 out of 375). The remaining 99.89 percent are unincorporated area, with a census 2006 population of five, all in Alert.
Overview of the islands
According to the Atlas of Canada there are 34 larger and 2,092 smaller islands in the archipelago.[2] With the exception of Ellesmere Island, they fall into two groups, the Sverdrup Islands and the Parry Islands:
Glaciers and ice caps
The Queen Elizabeth Islands contain four glaciers that represent c.14% of all glaciers and ice caps in the world.[1] According to a 2011 report, the largest of the four, the Devon Ice Cap measured 1,699 km2 (656 sq mi)(northwest sector only); the Meighen Ice Cap measured 75 km2 (29 sq mi); the Melville South Ice Cap measured 52 km2 (20 sq mi) and the White Glacier, Axel Heiberg Island glacier was 39 km2 (15 sq mi).[1] The size of these glaciers has been measured since 1961 and their results published in such distinguished journals as the International Glaciological Society's Annals of Glaciology.[1][49][50] Of the four ice caps that the federal government's NRCan’s Climate Change Geoscience Program Earth Sciences Sector (ESS), monitors onsite in the Canadian High Arctic, three are in the Queen Elizabeth Islands: Devon, Meighen and Melville.[3] In a memo to Earth Sciences Sector (ESS) in Canada’s High Arctic indicates that shrinking of ice caps started in the late 1980s, and has accelerated rapidly since 2005,” says an October 2013 memo to NRCan’s deputy minister, who reports to federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver.
Computer analysis of a glacier inventory of Axel Heiberg Island was undertaken in the 1960s.[51] Later inventories of the World Glacier Monitoring Service under the direction of Fritz Müller, who worked on glacier inventories internationally, included the Axel Heiberg Island glacier.[52]
See also
- List of islands of Canada
- List of Canadian islands by area
- List of Islands in the Queen Elizabeth Islands
References
- 1 2 3 4 Sharp, Martin; Burgess, David O.; Cogley, J. Graham; Ecclestone, Miles; Labine, Claude; Wolken, Gabriel J. (9 June 2011). "Extreme melt on Canada’s Arctic ice caps in the 21st century" (PDF). Geophysical Research Letters 38. Bibcode:2011GeoRL..3811501S. doi:10.1029/2011GL047381. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Sea islands: Atlas of Canada; Natural Resources Canada Archived July 16, 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- 1 2 Fekete, Jason (18 February 2014). "Canada’s Arctic ice caps melting rapidly since 2005, according to documents". Postmedia. Retrieved 22 February 2014.
- ↑ Hogg, John R.; Enachescu, Michael E (2013), Reviving Exploration in the Arctic Islands: Opportunities and Challenges from an Operator’s Perspective, Calgary, Alberta
- ↑ Researches for Sir John Franklin
- ↑ Franklin timeline Archived April 8, 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Greenland, Canada squabbling over pet rock
- ↑ Cheyne Islands Archived March 19, 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Vikings: the Arctic's first European visitors
- ↑ 2006 Census - Resolute
- ↑ 2006 Census - Grise Fiord
- ↑ Statistics Canada
- ↑ "Grise Fiord Community History". The Qikiqtani Truth Commission. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
- ↑ "Dundas Harbour - August 17th, 2013". Polar Trec. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
- ↑ Alexander Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Amund Ringnes Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Axel Heiberg Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Baillie-Hamilton Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Bathurst Island at Bivouac.com
- ↑ Borden Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Brock Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Buckingham Island at the Atlas of Canada Archived October 1, 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Byam Martin Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Cameron Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Coburg Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Cornwall Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Cornwallis Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Devon Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Eglinton Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Ellef Ringnes Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Ellesmere Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Emerald Isle at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Graham Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Griffith Island at the Atlas of Canada Archived October 1, 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Helena Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Hoved Island at the Atlas of Canada Archived October 1, 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Île Vanier at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ King Christian Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Little Cornwallis Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Lougheed Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Lowther Island at the Atlas of Canada Archived October 1, 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Mackenzie King Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Massey Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Meighen Island at arctic.uoguelph.ca
- ↑ Melville Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ North Kent Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Prince Patrick Island at peakbagger.com
- ↑ Stor Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- ↑ Cogley, J. G.; Adams, W. P.; Ecclestone, M. A.; Jung‐Rothenhausler, F.; Ommaney, C. S. L. (1996). "Mass balance of White Glacier, Axel Heiberg Island, NWT, Canada, 1960–91". Journal of Glaciology 42: 548–563.
- ↑ Koerner, R. M. (2005). "Mass balance of glaciers in the Queen Elizabeth Islands, Nunavut, Canada". Annals of Glaciology 42: 417–423,. doi:10.3189/172756405781813122.
- ↑ Ommanney, C. S.L.; Goodman, R. H.; Müller, Fritz (1969). "Computer Analysis of a Glacier Inventory of Axel Heiberg Island: Canadian Arctic Archipelago". Hydrological Sciences Journal 14: 19–28. doi:10.1080/02626666909493698.
- ↑ Lang, Herbert (21 Dec 2009) [1981]. "Obituary Fritz Muller". Hydrological Sciences Bulletin (Zürich, Switzerland) 26 (3): 332–333. doi:10.1080/02626668109490893.
- ↑ The weather station was established in 1950 and the military station was established in 1958
External links
- Bathurst Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- Cornwall Island at oceandots.com
- Meighen Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- Prince Patrick Island at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2010) at oceandots.com
- "New and Precise Depiction of the Southern Part of America, Which Includes: Brazil, the Caribbean, the New Kingdom of Guiana, Castilia del Oro, Nicaragua, the Antilles, and Peru: And Beneath the Tropic of Capricorn, Chile, the Rio de la Plato, Patagonia & the Straits of Magellan" is a map from 1602 that shows the islands.
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