1.
Baffin Bay (Texas)
–
Baffin Bay is a bay in South Texas, an inlet of the larger Laguna Madre. Located near the Gulf of Mexico, Baffin Bay forms part of the boundary between Kenedy County and Kleberg County, the history of the bay name is unclear. The most popular story is that Captain Mifflin Kenedy, after visiting the Arctic Baffin Bay as a young man, the Arctic Baffin Bay is located between the Baffin Island of Canada and Greenland, and it is about 310 times larger by area than the Baffin Bay in Texas. The Baffin Bay has three branches, which are named as follows, Alazan Bay on the north, Cayo del Grullo, several ephemeral streams, including San Fernando, Santa Gertrudis and Los Olmos, flow into the bay, but only when it rains. Because of the freshwater inflow and extensive evaporation, which is promoted by shallow water and warm climate. Between 1946 and 1948 and in 1968, the salinity level in the bay exceeded 100‰ killing much fish in the area, about 21 km2 of the bottom of the bay is covered in seagrass, most other parts are dominated by shoal grass with occasional rocky outcrops. Scattered parts of the bay, mostly near the mouth, contain the relict serpulid worm reefs, although some tube worm species still inhabit the bay area and the reefs, they bring no significant contribution to the reef structure. Most reefs are circular or ellipsoid structures between 8 and 40 meters in diameter and 0.5 to 2 meters in height above the sediment and their total area is about 16 km2, but it is gradually reducing due to erosion. The climate has been described as semiarid, subhumid or subtropical, tropical storms and hurricanes are common, and they strongly alter the climate and hydrology of the region. The lands around the bay are flat and dominated by grasslands and oak savanna, they are used for agriculture, the waters of the bay contain several species of annelids and 29 species of diatoms. The dominant mollusks are dwarf surf clams and Capitella capitata, the serpulid worm reefs are inhabited by crustaceans, polychaetes and mollusks. Invertebrates are represented by the fiddler crab species Uca subcylindrica. The bay is a destination for recreational angling and is famous for its trophy spotted seatrout. Other species include cowfish, threadfin shad, pompano, black drum and burrowing goby, the Laguna Madre of Texas and Tamaulipas. David A. McKee, Henry Compton, Janice D. Fechhelm, fishes of the Texas Laguna Madre, A Guide for Anglers & Naturalists. Baffin Bay from the Handbook of Texas Online U. S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System, Baffin Bay
Baffin Bay (Texas)
–
Baffin Bay, Texas
2.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
3.
Inuktitut
–
For example, being educated in Inuktitut does not mean just using the language. An Inukitut education is not done in classrooms and from books written in their language, parents still teach their children in Inuktitut away from schools. Inuit generally consider their culture and language to be parts of a single whole. The language of Inuktitut is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada and it is one of the aboriginal languages written with Canadian Aboriginal syllabics. It is recognised as a language in Nunavut alongside Inuinnaqtun. It also has some recognition in Nunatsiavut—the Inuit area in Labrador—following the ratification of its agreement with the government of Canada, the Canadian census reports that there are roughly 35,000 Inuktitut speakers in Canada, including roughly 200 who live regularly outside of traditionally Inuit lands. The term Inuktitut is often used broadly to include Inuvialuktun. For more information on the relationship between Inuktitut and the Inuit languages spoken in Greenland and Alaska, see Inuit languages, the word Inuktitut is often used to describe both. A more proper term has been adopted using Inuit Languages when speaking of Inuinnaqtun, the demographic situation of Inuktitut is quite strong in Nunavut. Nunavut is the home of some 24,000 Inuit, most of whom – over 80% according to the 2001 census – speak Inuktitut, including some 3,500 people reported as monolinguals. 2001 census data shows that the use of Inuktitut, while lower among the young than the elderly, has stopped declining in Canada as a whole, the South Baffin dialect is spoken across the southern part of Baffin Island, including the territorial capital Iqaluit. This has in recent years made it a more widely heard dialect. Some linguists also distinguish an East Baffin dialect from either South Baffin or North Baffin, Quebec is home to roughly 12,000 Inuit, nearly all of whom live in Nunavik. According to the 2001 census, 90% of Quebec Inuit speak Inuktitut, the Nunavik dialect is relatively close to the South Baffin dialect, but not identical. In the Nunavik dialect, Inuktitut is called Inuttitut and this dialect is also sometimes called Tarramiutut or Taqramiutut. Subdialects of Inuktitut in this region include Tarrarmiut and Itivimuit, Itivimuit is associated with Inukjuak, Quebec, and there is a Itivimuit River near the town. The Nunatsiavut dialect was spoken across northern Labrador. It has a writing system, created by German missionaries from the Moravian Church in Greenland in the 1760s
Inuktitut
–
Distribution of Inuit language variants across the Arctic. East Inuktitut dialects are those east of Hudson Bay, here coloured dark blue, red and pink, and the brown in NW Greenland.
4.
Greenlandic language
–
Greenlandic is an Eskimo–Aleut language spoken by about 57,000 Greenlandic Inuit in Greenland. It is closely related to the Inuit languages in Canada such as Inuktitut, the second variety is Tunumiit oraasiat or East Greenlandic. The Thule Inuit of Greenland, Inuktun or Polar Eskimo, is a recent arrival, Greenlandic is a polysynthetic language that allows the creation of long words by stringing together roots and suffixes. Its morphosyntactic alignment is ergative, meaning that it treats the argument of a verb like the object of a transitive verb. Nouns are inflected for one of the eight cases and for possession, verbs are inflected for one of the eight moods and for the number and person of its subject and object. Both nouns and verbs have complex derivational morphology, basic word order in transitive clauses is subject–object–verb. Subordination of clauses is done by the use of special subordinate moods, a so-called fourth-person category enables switch-reference between main clauses and subordinate clauses with different subjects. However, some linguists have suggested that Greenlandic does mark future tense obligatorily, another question is whether the language has noun incorporation, or whether the processes that create complex predicates that include nominal roots are derivational in nature. When adopting new concepts or technologies, Greenlandic usually constructs new words made from Greenlandic roots, the language has been written in the Latin script since Danish colonization began in the 1700s. The first orthography was developed by Samuel Kleinschmidt in 1851, an extensive orthographic reform undertaken in 1973 that made the script easier to learn resulted in a boost in Greenlandic literacy, which is now among the highest in the world. The Greenlandic language was brought to Greenland with the arrival of the Thule people in the 1200s and it is unknown which languages were spoken by the earlier Saqqaq and Dorset cultures in Greenland. The missionary Paul Egede wrote the first Greenlandic dictionary in 1750, from the Danish colonization in the 1700s to the beginning of Greenlandic home rule in 1979, Greenlandic experienced increasing pressure from the Danish language. In the 1950s, Denmarks linguistic policies were directed at replacing Greenlandic with Danish, of primary significance was that post-primary education and official functions were conducted in Danish. From 1851 to 1973, Greenlandic was written in a complicated orthography devised by the missionary linguist Samuel Kleinschmidt, in 1973, a new orthography was introduced, intended to bring the written language closer to the spoken standard, which had changed considerably since Kleinschmidts time. The reform was effective and in the following it, Greenlandic literacy received a boost. Another development that strengthened the Greenlandic language has been the policy of greenlandization of Greenlandic society which began with the agreement of 1979. This policy has worked to reverse the trend towards marginalization of the Greenlandic language by making it the official language of education. Today Greenlandic has several dedicated news media, the Greenlandic National Radio, Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa, before June 2009, Greenlandic shared its status as the official language in Greenland with Danish
Greenlandic language
–
A bilingual sign in Nuuk, showing the stark contrast between Danish and Kalaallisut. The sign translates to "parking forbidden for all vehicles".
Greenlandic language
–
Greenlandic
Greenlandic language
–
The orthography and vocabulary of the Greenlandic language is governed by Oqaasileriffik, the Greenlandic language secretariat, located in the Ilimmarfik university Campus in
Nuuk.
Greenlandic language
–
ĸ in a Greenlandic–Danish dictionary from 1926
5.
French language
–
French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
French language
–
The
"arrêt" signs (French for "stop") are used in
Canada while the international stop, which is also a valid French word, is used in France as well as other French-speaking countries and regions.
French language
–
Regions where French is the main language
French language
–
Town sign in
Standard Arabic and French at the entrance of
Rechmaya in
Lebanon.
French language
–
An obsolete 100
Lebanese pound note with the French language inscriptions "Banque du Liban" and "Cent livres".
6.
Baffin Island
–
Baffin Island, in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada and the fifth largest island in the world. Its area is 507,451 km2 and its population is about 11,000 and it is located 65.4215 N and 70.9654 W. Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, is located on the southeastern coast. Until 1987, the town shared the name Frobisher Bay with the bay on which it is located, to the south lies Hudson Strait, separating Baffin Island from mainland Quebec. South of the end of the island is the Fury. To the east are Davis Strait and Baffin Bay, with Greenland beyond, the Foxe Basin, the Gulf of Boothia and Lancaster Sound separate Baffin Island from the rest of the archipelago to the west and north. The Baffin Mountains run along the shore of the island and are a part of the Arctic Cordillera. Mount Odin is the highest peak, with an elevation of at least 2,143 m, another peak of note is Mount Asgard, located in Auyuittuq National Park, with an elevation of 2,011 m. Mount Thor, with an elevation of 1,675 m, is said to have the greatest purely vertical drop of any mountain on Earth, the two largest lakes on the island lie in the south-central part of the island, Nettilling Lake and Amadjuak Lake further south. Conversely, in the 1970s parts of Baffin Island failed to have the usual ice-free period in the summer, the island has been continuously inhabited by Inuit peoples for centuries. In September 2008, Nunatsiaq News reported that a team led by Dr, so you have to consider the possibility that as remote as it may seem, these finds may represent evidence of contact with Europeans prior to the Vikings arrival in Greenland. Dr Sutherlands research eventually led to a 2012 announcement that whetstones had been found remnants of alloys indicative of Viking presence. The archaeological site at Tanfield Valley is thought to have been a trading post, Baffin Island is part of the Qikiqtaaluk Region. Additionally, the communities of Qikiqtarjuaq and Cape Dorset are located on offshore islands, there are discussions to start the Baffinland Iron Mine, an iron ore mine with a 21-year life, at Mary River, and to build a railway and a port to transport the ore. This may create a mining community there. Baffin Island has both year-round and summer visitor wildlife, on land, examples of year-round wildlife are barren-ground caribou, polar bear, Arctic fox, Arctic hare, lemming and Arctic wolf. In 2012, a survey of caribou herds found that the population was only about 5000. Polar bears mate approximately every year with one to three cubs being born around March. Female polar bears may travel 10–20 km inland to find a large snow bank where they dig a den in which to spend the winter and later for giving birth, the polar bear population here is one of 19 genetically distinct demes of the circumpolar region
Baffin Island
–
Baffin Island coast.
Baffin Island
–
Baffin Island
Baffin Island
–
Southern tip of Baffin Island.
Baffin Island
–
Mount Thor, a large cliff on Baffin Island
7.
Greenland
–
Greenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Danish Realm between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for more than a millennium. The majority of its residents are Inuit, whose ancestors began migrating from the Canadian mainland in the 13th century, Greenland is the worlds largest island. Three-quarters of Greenland is covered by the permanent ice sheet outside Antarctica. With a population of about 56,480, it is the least densely populated country in the world, the Arctic Umiaq Line ferry acts as a lifeline for western Greenland, connecting the various cities and settlements. Greenland has been inhabited off and on for at least the last 4,500 years by Arctic peoples whose forebears migrated there from what is now Canada, Norsemen settled the uninhabited southern part of Greenland beginning in the 10th century, and Inuit peoples arrived in the 13th century. The Norse colonies disappeared in the late 15th century, soon after their demise, beginning in 1499, the Portuguese briefly explored and claimed the island, naming it Terra do Lavrador. In the early 18th century, Scandinavian explorers reached Greenland again, to strengthen trading and power, Denmark-Norway affirmed sovereignty over the island. Greenland was settled by Vikings more than a thousand years ago, Vikings set sail from Greenland and Iceland, discovering North America nearly 500 years before Columbus reached Caribbean islands. Though under continuous influence of Norway and Norwegians, Greenland was not formally under the Norwegian crown until 1262, the Kingdom of Norway was extensive and a military power until the mid-14th century. Thus, the two kingdoms resources were directed at creating Copenhagen, Norway became the weaker part and lost sovereignty over Greenland in 1814 when the union was dissolved. Greenland became a Danish colony in 1814, and was made a part of the Danish Realm in 1953 under the Constitution of Denmark, in 1973, Greenland joined the European Economic Community with Denmark. However, in a referendum in 1982, a majority of the population voted for Greenland to withdraw from the EEC which was effected in 1985, Greenland contains the worlds largest and most northernly national park, Northeast Greenland National Park. Greenland is divided into four municipalities - Sermersooq, Kujalleq, Qaasuitsup and it also retains control of monetary policy, providing an initial annual subsidy of DKK3.4 billion, which is planned to diminish gradually over time. Greenland expects to grow its economy based on increased income from the extraction of natural resources, the capital, Nuuk, held the 2016 Arctic Winter Games. At 70%, Greenland has one of the highest shares of renewable energy in the world, the early Viking settlers named the island as Greenland. In the Icelandic sagas, the Norwegian-born Icelander Erik the Red was said to be exiled from Iceland for manslaughter, along with his extended family and his thralls, he set out in ships to explore an icy land known to lie to the northwest. After finding an area and settling there, he named it Grœnland
Greenland
–
Kingittorsuaq Runestone from
Kingittorsuaq Island (
Middle ages).
Greenland
–
Flag
Greenland
–
The last written records of the
Norse Greenlanders are of a marriage in 1408 in the
church of Hvalsey —today the best-preserved Nordic ruins in Greenland.
Greenland
–
A 1747 map based on Egede's descriptions and misconceptions.
8.
Atlantic Ocean
–
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the worlds oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 square kilometres. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earths surface and about 29 percent of its surface area. It separates the Old World from the New World, the Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Eurasia and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. The Equatorial Counter Current subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean, in contrast, the term Atlantic originally referred specifically to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and the sea off the Strait of Gibraltar and the North African coast. The Greek word thalassa has been reused by scientists for the huge Panthalassa ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea hundreds of years ago. The term Aethiopian Ocean, derived from Ancient Ethiopia, was applied to the Southern Atlantic as late as the mid-19th century, many Irish or British people refer to the United States and Canada as across the pond, and vice versa. The Black Atlantic refers to the role of ocean in shaping black peoples history. Irish migration to the US is meant when the term The Green Atlantic is used, the term Red Atlantic has been used in reference to the Marxian concept of an Atlantic working class, as well as to the Atlantic experience of indigenous Americans. Correspondingly, the extent and number of oceans and seas varies, the Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea, to the east, the boundaries of the ocean proper are Europe, the Strait of Gibraltar and Africa. In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean, the 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica defines its border. In the 1953 definition it extends south to Antarctica, while in later maps it is bounded at the 60° parallel by the Southern Ocean, the Atlantic has irregular coasts indented by numerous bays, gulfs, and seas. Including these marginal seas the coast line of the Atlantic measures 111,866 km compared to 135,663 km for the Pacific. Including its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers an area of 106,460,000 km2 or 23. 5% of the ocean and has a volume of 310,410,900 km3 or 23. 3%. Excluding its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers 81,760,000 km2 and has a volume of 305,811,900 km3, the North Atlantic covers 41,490,000 km2 and the South Atlantic 40,270,000 km2. The average depth is 3,646 m and the maximum depth, the bathymetry of the Atlantic is dominated by a submarine mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It runs from 87°N or 300 km south of the North Pole to the subantarctic Bouvet Island at 42°S, the MAR divides the Atlantic longitudinally into two halves, in each of which a series of basins are delimited by secondary, transverse ridges. The MAR reaches above 2000 m along most of its length, the MAR is a barrier for bottom water, but at these two transform faults deep water currents can pass from one side to the other
Atlantic Ocean
–
The Atlantic Ocean as seen from the western coast of
Portugal
Atlantic Ocean
–
The Atlantic Ocean, not including
Arctic and
Antarctic regions
Atlantic Ocean
–
The Atlantic Ocean as seen from
Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Atlantic Ocean
–
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina view of the Atlantic Ocean.
9.
Davis Strait
–
Davis Strait is a northern arm of the Labrador Sea. It lies between mid-western Greenland and Nunavut, Canadas Baffin Island, to the north is Baffin Bay. The strait was named for the English explorer John Davis, who explored the area seeking a Northwest Passage. By the 1650s it was used for whale hunting, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Davis Strait as follows, On the North. The Southern limit of Baffin Bay, the parallel of 60° North between Greenland and Labrador. The Eastern limit of the Northwestern Passages South of 70° North, the Davis Strait is underlain by complex geological features of buried grabens and ridges, probably formed by strike-slip faulting during Paleogene times about 45 million to 62 million years ago. The strike-slip faulting transferred plate-tectonic motions in the Labrador Sea to Baffin Bay and it is the worlds broadest strait. With a water depth of one and two thousand meters the strait is substantially shallower than the Labrador Sea to the south or Baffin Bay to the north. The strait is famous for its fierce tides that can range from 30 to 60 ft and this has led the Greenlands minister and provincial council to offer a large number of off-shore concessions to potential hydrocarbon extraction. The largest concessions areas are located in seas west of Greenland, primarily the Davis Strait and Baffin Bay, june 2005 Satellite photograph of Davis Strait from MODIS, showing meltwater ponds
Davis Strait
–
The coast of Davis Strait in western Greenland
Davis Strait
–
Nunavut
10.
Labrador Sea
–
The Labrador Sea is an arm of the North Atlantic Ocean between the Labrador Peninsula and Greenland. The sea is flanked by continental shelves to the southwest, northwest and it connects to the north with Baffin Bay through the Davis Strait. It has been described as a sea of the Atlantic. The sea formed upon separation of the North American Plate and Greenland Plate that started about 60 million years ago, the Labrador Sea formed upon separation of the North American Plate and Greenland Plate that started about 60 million years ago and stopped about 40 million years ago. A sedimentary basin, which is now buried under the continental shelves, onset of magmatic sea-floor spreading was accompanied by volcanic eruptions of picrites and basalts in the Paleocene at the Davis Strait and Baffin Bay. Between about 500 BC and 1300 AD, the southern coast of the sea contained Dorset, Beothuk and Inuit settlements, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Labrador Sea as follows, On the North, the South limit of Davis Strait. On the East, a line from Cape St. Francis 47°45′N 52°27′W to Cape Farewell, thence a line joining this ledge with the East extreme of Cape St. Charles in Labrador. The Labrador Sea is about 3,400 m deep and 1,000 km wide where it joins the Atlantic Ocean and it becomes shallower, to less than 700 m towards Baffin Bay and passes into the 300 kilometres wide Davis Strait. A 100–200 m deep turbidity current channel system, which is about 2–5 km wide and 3,800 kilometres long, runs on the bottom of the sea and it is called the Northwest Atlantic Mid-Ocean Channel and is one of the worlds longest drainage systems of Pleistocene age. It appears as a river bed with numerous tributaries and is maintained by high-density turbidity currents flowing within the levees. The water temperature varies between −1 °C in winter and 5–6 °C in summer, the salinity is relatively low, at 31–34.9 parts per thousand. Two-thirds of the sea is covered in ice in winter, tides are semi-diurnal, reaching 4 m. There is a water circulation in the sea. It is initiated by the East Greenland Current and continued by the West Greenland Current, then, the Baffin Island Current and Labrador Current transport cold and less saline water southward along the Canadian coast. These currents carry numerous icebergs and therefore hinder navigation and exploration of the gas fields beneath the sea bed. The speed of the Labrador current is typically 0. 3–0.5 m/s, the Labrador Current maintains the water temperature at 0 °C and salinity between 30 and 34 parts per thousand. The NADW consists of three parts of different origin and salinity, and the top one, the Labrador Sea Water, is formed in the Labrador Sea. This part occurs at a depth and has a relatively low salinity, low temperature and high oxygen content compared to the layers above
Labrador Sea
–
Past sunset at Labrador Sea, off the coast of
Paamiut, Greenland
Labrador Sea
–
Major North Atlantic currents.
Labrador Sea
–
Close up of a Labrador tea flower
11.
Nares Strait
–
Nares Strait is a waterway between Ellesmere Island and Greenland that is the northern part of Baffin Bay where it meets the Lincoln Sea. From south to north, the strait includes Smith Sound, Kane Basin, Kennedy Channel, Hall Basin, during 1962–64 a 20 km by 10 km ice island drifted southward from the Lincoln Sea through the Nares and Davis Straits to the Atlantic Ocean. Nares strait has a nearly permanent current from the north, powered by the Beaufort Gyre, in 1964, its name, from the British naval officer George Strong Nares, was agreed by the Danish and Canadian governments. The strait and neighbouring waters are usually hazardous for navigation and shipping, during August, however, it is usually navigable by icebreakers. Prior to 1948, only five vessels were recorded as having successfully navigated north of Kane Basin, in 2009 the ship Arctic Sunrise made the first known June transit into the Arctic Ocean. Hans Island, an island lying within the strait, is claimed by both Denmark and Canada. Thule People reached the Nares Strait in the early 13th century, archeological remains of Thule Culture and Viking presence are found on Ruin Island. Missing Ice Arches Contributed to 2007 Arctic Ice Loss http, //muenchow. cms. udel. edu/papers/MuenchowMelling2008JMR. pdf
Nares Strait
–
Nunavut
12.
Arctic Ocean
–
The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the worlds five major oceans. Alternatively, the Arctic Ocean can be seen as the northernmost part of the all-encompassing World Ocean, located mostly in the Arctic north polar region in the middle of the Northern Hemisphere, the Arctic Ocean is almost completely surrounded by Eurasia and North America. It is partly covered by sea ice throughout the year and almost completely in winter, the summer shrinking of the ice has been quoted at 50%. The US National Snow and Ice Data Center uses satellite data to provide a record of Arctic sea ice cover. The Arctic may become ice free for the first time in human history within a few years or by 2040, for much of European history, the north polar regions remained largely unexplored and their geography conjectural. He was probably describing loose sea ice known today as growlers or bergy bits, his Thule was probably Norway, early cartographers were unsure whether to draw the region around the North Pole as land or water. The makers of navigational charts, more conservative than some of the more fanciful cartographers, tended to leave the region blank and this lack of knowledge of what lay north of the shifting barrier of ice gave rise to a number of conjectures. In England and other European nations, the myth of an Open Polar Sea was persistent, john Barrow, longtime Second Secretary of the British Admiralty, promoted exploration of the region from 1818 to 1845 in search of this. In the United States in the 1850s and 1860s, the explorers Elisha Kane, even quite late in the century, the eminent authority Matthew Fontaine Maury included a description of the Open Polar Sea in his textbook The Physical Geography of the Sea. Nevertheless, as all the explorers who travelled closer and closer to the reported, the polar ice cap is quite thick. Fridtjof Nansen was the first to make a crossing of the Arctic Ocean. The first surface crossing of the ocean was led by Wally Herbert in 1969, in a dog sled expedition from Alaska to Svalbard, with air support. The first nautical transit of the pole was made in 1958 by the submarine USS Nautilus. Since 1937, Soviet and Russian manned drifting ice stations have extensively monitored the Arctic Ocean, scientific settlements were established on the drift ice and carried thousands of kilometres by ice floes. In World War II, the European region of the Arctic Ocean was heavily contested, the Arctic Ocean occupies a roughly circular basin and covers an area of about 14,056,000 km2, almost the size of Antarctica. The coastline is 45,390 km long and it is surrounded by the land masses of Eurasia, North America, Greenland, and by several islands. It is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Bering Strait and to the Atlantic Ocean through the Greenland Sea, countries bordering the Arctic Ocean are, Russia, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Canada and the United States. There are several ports and harbours around the Arctic Ocean In Alaska, in Canada, ships may anchor at Churchill in Manitoba, Nanisivik in Nunavut, Tuktoyaktuk or Inuvik in the Northwest territories
Arctic Ocean
–
A
bathymetric /
topographic of the Arctic Ocean and the surrounding lands.
Arctic Ocean
–
Emanuel Bowen 's 1780s map of the Arctic features a "Northern Ocean".
Arctic Ocean
–
Sea cover in the Arctic Ocean, showing the median, 2005 and 2007 coverage
Arctic Ocean
–
Three
polar bears approach
USS Honolulu near the
North Pole.
13.
Arctic ice pack
–
The Arctic ice pack is the ice cover of the Arctic Ocean and its vicinity. The Arctic ice pack undergoes a seasonal cycle in which ice melts in spring and summer, reaches a minimum around mid-September, then increases during fall. Summer ice cover in the Arctic is about 50% of winter cover, some of the ice survives from one year to the next. Currently 28% of Arctic basin sea ice is ice, thicker than seasonal ice, up to 3–4 meters thick over large areas. As well as the seasonal cycle there has been an underlying trend of declining sea ice in the Arctic in recent decades. Sea ice has an important effect on the balance of the polar oceans, since it insulates the warm ocean from the much colder air above. Sea ice is highly reflective of solar radiation, reflecting about 60% of incoming solar radiation when bare and this is much greater than the reflectivity of the sea and thus the ice also affects the absorption of sunlight at the surface. The sea ice cycle is also an important source of dense bottom water, while freezing, water rejects its salt content, leaving pure ice. The remaining surface water, made dense by the salinity, sinks. This production of water is a factor in maintaining the thermohaline circulation. In the Arctic, a key area where pancake ice forms the dominant ice type over a region is the so-called Odden ice tongue in the Greenland Sea. Most of the old ice continues south, driven by the wind, so an open water surface is exposed on which new ice forms as frazil. Reliable measurements of sea ice edge begin within the satellite era, from the late 1970s, the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer on Seasat and Nimbus 7 satellites provided information that was independent of solar illumination or meteorological conditions. The frequency and accuracy of passive microwave measurements improved with the launch of the DMSP F8 Special Sensor Microwave/Imager SSMI in 1987. Both the sea ice area and extent are estimated, with the latter being larger, the trends from 1979 to 2002 have been a statistically significant Arctic sea ice decrease of −2. 5% ±0. 9% per decade during those 23 years. Climate models simulated this trend in 2002, the September minimum ice extent trend for 1979–2011 declined by 12. 0% per decade during 32 years. In 2007 the minimum extent fell by more than a million square kilometers, new research shows the Arctic Sea ice to be melting faster than predicted by any of the 18 computer models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in preparing its 2007 assessments. In 2012, a new low of about 3,500,000 km2 was reached
Arctic ice pack
–
Location of the
weather station Alert. Extension of the ice at 15 September 2008 (36
M px).
Arctic ice pack
–
NOAA Projected Arctic changes.
Arctic ice pack
–
Extent of Arctic ice March 1946 (U.S. Navy)
Arctic ice pack
–
Extent of Arctic ice October 1946 (U.S. Navy)
14.
Sea ice
–
Sea ice arises as seawater freezes. Because ice is less dense water, it floats on the oceans surface. Sea ice covers about 7% of the Earth’s surface and about 12% of the world’s oceans. Much of the sea ice is enclosed within the polar ice packs in the Earths polar regions, the Arctic ice pack of the Arctic Ocean. Polar packs undergo a significant yearly cycling in surface extent, a natural process upon which depends the Arctic ecology, due to the action of winds, currents and temperature fluctuations, sea ice is very dynamic, leading to a wide variety of ice types and features. Sea ice may be contrasted with icebergs, which are chunks of ice shelves or glaciers that calve into the ocean, depending on location, sea ice expanses may also incorporate icebergs. Sea ice does not simply grow and melt, during its lifespan, it is very dynamic. Due to the action of winds, currents, water temperature. Sea ice is classified according to whether or not it is able to drift, Sea ice can be classified according to whether or not it is attached to the shoreline. If attached, it is called landfast ice, or more often, alternatively, and unlike fast ice, drift ice occurs further offshore in very wide areas, and encompasses ice that is free to move with currents and winds. The physical boundary between fast ice and drift ice is the fast ice boundary, the drift ice zone may be further divided into a shear zone, a marginal ice zone and a central pack. Drift ice consists of floes, individual pieces of sea ice 20 metres or more across, the term pack ice is used either as a synonym to drift ice, or to designate drift ice zone in which the floes are densely packed. The overall sea ice cover is termed the ice canopy from the perspective of submarine navigation, another classification used by scientists to describe sea ice is based on age, that is, on its development stages. These stages are, new ice, nilas, young ice, first-year, new ice is a general term used for recently frozen sea water that does not yet make up solid ice. It may consist of ice, slush, or shuga. Other terms, such as ice and pancake ice, are used for ice crystal accumulations under the action of wind. Nilas designates a sea ice crust up to 10 centimetres in thickness and it bends without breaking around waves and swells. Nilas can be subdivided into dark nilas – up to 5 centimetres in thickness and very dark
Sea ice
–
Broken pieces of sea ice with a snow cover.
Sea ice
–
Nilas in
Baffin Bay
Sea ice
–
Aerial view showing an expanse of drift ice offshore Labrador (Eastern Canada) displaying floes of various sizes loosely packed, with open water in several networks of
leads. (Scale not available.)
Sea ice
–
Aerial view showing an expanse of drift ice in southeastern Greenland, comprising loosely packed floes of various sizes, with a
lead developing in the centre.(Scale not available.)
15.
Iceberg
–
An iceberg or ice mountain is a large piece of freshwater ice that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open water. It may subsequently become frozen into pack ice, as it drifts into shallower waters, it may come into contact with the seabed, a process referred to as seabed gouging by ice. Almost 91% of an iceberg is below the surface of the water, the word iceberg is a partial loan translation from Dutch ijsberg, literally meaning ice mountain, cognate to Danish isbjerg, German Eisberg, Low Saxon Iesbarg and Swedish isberg. Because the density of ice is about 920 kg/m³. The shape of the underwater portion can be difficult to judge by looking at the portion above the surface and this has led to the expression tip of the iceberg, for a problem or difficulty that is only a small manifestation of a larger problem. Icebergs generally range from 1 to 75 metres above sea level, the largest known iceberg in the North Atlantic was 168 metres above sea level, reported by the USCG icebreaker East Wind in 1958, making it the height of a 55-story building. These icebergs originate from the glaciers of western Greenland and may have a temperature of −15 to −20 °C. Icebergs are usually confined by winds and currents to move close to the coast, the largest icebergs recorded have been calved, or broken off, from the Ross Ice Shelf of Antarctica. Iceberg B-15, photographed by satellite in 2000, measured 295 by 37 kilometres and this iceberg was larger than Belgium. When a piece of ice melts, it makes a fizzing sound called Bergie Seltzer. This sound is made when the water-ice interface reaches compressed air trapped in the ice. As this happens, each bubble bursts, making a popping sound, the bubbles contain air trapped in snow layers very early in the history of the ice, that eventually got buried to a given depth and pressurized as it transformed into firn then to glacial ice. About a month later, this split into two pieces upon crashing into Joe Island in the Nares Strait next to Greenland. In June 2011, large fragments of the Petermann Ice Islands were observed off the Labrador coast, iceberg B-17B140 km2,1999, shipping alert issued December 2009. In addition to classification, icebergs can be classified on the basis of their shape. The two basic types of forms are tabular and non-tabular. Tabular icebergs have steep sides and a top, much like a plateau. This type of iceberg, also known as an ice island, can be quite large, Antarctic icebergs formed by breaking off from an ice shelf, such as the Ross Ice Shelf or Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, are typically tabular
Iceberg
–
An artist's impression of an iceberg viewed from the side, with the majority underwater
Iceberg
–
Grotto in an iceberg, photographed during the
British Antarctic Expedition of 1911–1913, 5 Jan 1911. Photographer: Herbert Ponting, Alexander Turnbull Library
Iceberg
–
The
calving of Iceberg A-38 off
Ronne Ice Shelf
Iceberg
–
Iceberg A22A in the South
Atlantic Ocean
16.
Polynya
–
A polynya /pəˈlɪnjə/ is an area of open water surrounded by sea ice. It is now used as term for an area of unfrozen sea within the ice pack. It is a loanword from Russian, полынья Russian pronunciation, which refers to an ice hole. In past decades, for example, some polynyas, such as the Weddell Polynya, have lasted over multiple winters and this reduces ice production and may stop it altogether. Latent heat polynya, is formed through the action of wind or ocean currents which act to drive ice away from a fixed boundary, such as a coastline, fast ice. The polynya forms initially by the first year pack ice being driven away from the coast and this new ice is then also herded downwind toward the first year pack ice. When it reaches the ice the new ice is consolidated onto the pack ice. The latent heat polynya is the water region between the coast and the ice pack. Latent heat polynyas are regions of ice production and therefore are possible sites of dense water production in both polar regions. The high ice production rates within these polynyas leads to an amount of brine rejection into the surface waters. This salty water then sinks and mixes to possibly form new water masses and it is an open question as to whether the polynyas of the Arctic can produce enough dense water to form a major portion of the dense water required to drive the thermohaline circulation. Some polynyas, such as the North Water Polynya between Canada and Greenland occur seasonally at the time and place each year. Because animals can adapt their strategies to this regularity, these types of polynyas are of special ecological research significance. In winter, marine mammals such as walruses, narwhals and belugas that do not migrate south, polar bears are known to be able to swim as far as 65 kilometres across open waters of a polynya. The presence of polynyas in McMurdo Sound in the Antarctic provides an area where penguins can feed. When submarines of the U. S. Navy made expeditions to the North Pole in the 1950s and 60s, there was a significant concern about surfacing through the thick pack ice of the Arctic Ocean. In 1962, both the USS Skate and USS Seadragon surfaced within the same, large polynya near the North Pole, lead North Water Polynya Weddell Polynya International North Water Polynya Study Polynya north of Alaska at NASA Earth Observatory
Polynya
–
Katabatic wind spilling off an ice shelf
Polynya
–
Coastal polynyas are produced in the Antarctic by
katabatic winds
Polynya
–
The flukes of a
narwhal in a
Baffin Bay polynya.
17.
Smith Sound
–
Smith Sound is an uninhabited Arctic sea passage between Greenland and Canadas northernmost island, Ellesmere Island. It links Baffin Bay with Kane Basin and forms part of the Nares Strait, on the Greenland side of the sound were the now abandoned settlements of Etah and Annoatok. The first known visit to the area by Europeans was in 1616 when the Discovery, captained by Robert Bylot and piloted by William Baffin, the sound was originally named Sir Thomas Smiths Bay after the English diplomat Sir Thomas Smythe. By the 1750s it regularly appeared on maps as Sir Thomas Smiths Sound, by this time it had begun to be known simply as Smith Sound. In 1852 Edward Augustus Inglefield penetrated a little further than Baffin, glaciated Landscapes Along Smith Sound, Ellesmere Island, Canada and Greenland. Movements of Arctic Fox Populations in the Region of Baffin Bay, the Thermal History of the Nares Strait, Kane Basin, and Smith Sound Region in Canada and Greenland, Constraints from Apatite Fission-Track and /He Dating. Peary, Robert E. London, Methuen,1898
Smith Sound
–
Nunavut (mostly Ellesmere Island)
18.
International Hydrographic Organization
–
The International Hydrographic Organization is the inter-governmental organisation representing hydrography. A principal aim of the IHO is to ensure that the seas, oceans. It does this through the setting of standards, the co-ordination of the endeavours of the worlds national hydrographic offices. The IHO enjoys observer status at the United Nations where it is the competent authority on hydrographic surveying. When referring to hydrography and nautical charting in Conventions and similar Instruments, it is the IHO standards, the IHO was established in 1921 as the International Hydrographic Bureau. The present name was adopted in 1970 as part of a new international Convention on the IHO adopted by the member nations. The former name International Hydrographic Bureau was retained to describe the IHO secretariat until 8 November 2016, there were substantial differences in hydrographic procedures charts, and publications. In 1889, an International Maritime Conference was held at Washington, D. C. similar proposals were made at the sessions of the International Congress of Navigation held at Saint Petersburg in 1908 and the International Maritime Conference held at Saint Petersburg in 1912. In 1919 the hydrographers of Great Britain and France cooperated in taking the steps to convene an international conference of hydrographers. London was selected as the most suitable place for this conference, and on 24 July 1919 and this is still the major purpose of the IHO. As a result of the conference, a permanent organization was formed, the IHB, now the IHO, began its activities in 1921 with 18 nations as members. The Principality of Monaco was selected as the seat of the organization as a result of the offer of Albert I, the IHO develops hydrographic and nautical charting standards. These standards are adopted and used by its 86 member countries and others in their surveys, nautical charts. Much has been done in the field of standardisation since the Bureau was founded, the IHO has encouraged the formation of Regional Hydrographic Commissions. Each RHC coordinates the national surveying and charting activities of countries within each region, the 15 RHCs plus the IHO Hydrographic Commission on Antarctica effectively cover the world. The IHO, in partnership with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, directs the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans programme, in 2010 the IHO introduced a new, contemporary hydrographic geospatial standard for modelling marine data and information, known as S-100. S-100 and any dependent product specifications are underpinned by an on-line registry accessible via the IHO website, S-100 is aligned with the ISO19100 series of geographic standards, thereby making it fully compatible with contemporary geospatial data standards. Because S-100 is based on ISO19100, it can be used by other providers for their maritime-related data
International Hydrographic Organization
–
Member states Approved, but awaiting membership Membership applications
19.
Ellesmere Island
–
Ellesmere Island is part of the Qikiqtaaluk Region of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. Lying within the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, it is considered part of the Queen Elizabeth Islands and it comprises an area of 196,235 km2 and the total length of the island is 830 kilometres, making it the worlds tenth largest island and Canadas third largest island. The Arctic Cordillera mountain system covers much of Ellesmere Island, making it the most mountainous in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, the Arctic willow is the only woody species to grow on Ellesmere Island. The first human inhabitants of Ellesmere Island were small bands drawn to the area for Peary caribou, muskox, vikings from the Greenland colonies reached Ellesmere Island, Skraeling Island, and Ruin Island during hunting expeditions and trading with the Inuit groups. Unusual structures on Bache peninsula may be the remains of a late-period Dorset stone longhouse, the first European to sight the island after the height of the Little Ice Age was William Baffin in 1616. Ellesmere Island was named in 1852 by Edward Inglefields expedition after Francis Egerton, the US expedition led by Adolphus Greely in 1881 crossed the island from east to west, establishing Fort Conger in the northern part of the island. The Greely expedition found fossil forests on Ellesmere Island in the late 1880s, Stenkul Fiord was first explored in 1902 by Per Schei, a member of Otto Sverdrups 2nd Norwegian Polar Expedition. In 1906 Robert Peary led an expedition in northern Ellesmere Island, during Pearys expedition, the Ice Shelf was continuous, a modern estimate is that it covered 8,900 km2. In 2011, Jon Turk and Erik Boomer completed the first known circumnavigation of Ellesmere Island, Ellesmere Island contains Canadas northernmost point, Cape Columbia at 83°6′41″N. Barbeau Peak, the highest mountain in Nunavut is located in the British Empire Range on Ellesmere Island, the most northern mountain range in the world, the Challenger Mountains, is located in the northeast region of the island. The northern lobe of the island is called Grant Land, in July 2007, a study noted the disappearance of habitat for waterfowl, invertebrates, and algae on Ellesmere Island. The researchers noted that In the 1980s they often needed to wear hip waders to make their way to the ponds. while by 2006 the same areas were dry enough to burn. The northwest coast of Ellesmere Island was covered by a massive,500 km long ice shelf until the 20th century. A1986 survey of Canadian ice shelves found that 48 km2 or 3.3 km3 of ice calved from the Milne and Ayles ice shelves between 1959 and 1974. The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, the largest remaining section of thick landfast sea ice along the coastline of Ellesmere Island. It further decreased by 27% in thickness between 1967 and 1999, Schei and later Nathorst described the Paleocene-Eocene fossil forest in the Stenkul Fiord sediments. The Stenkul Fiord site represents a series of deltaic swamp and floodplain forests, the trees stood for at least 400 years. Individual stumps and stems of >1 m diameter were abundant, and are identified as Metasequoia, well preserved Pliocene peats containing abundant vertebrate and plant macrofossils characteristic of a boreal forest have been reported from Strathcona Fiord
Ellesmere Island
–
Tundra in
Quttinirpaaq National Park
Ellesmere Island
–
Satellite image montage showing Ellesmere Island and its neighbours
Ellesmere Island
–
The
Osborn Range of the
Arctic Cordillera mountain system
20.
Coburg Island
–
Coburg Island is an uninhabited island in Qikiqtaaluk, Nunavut, Canada. It is one of the members of Queen Elizabeth Islands located in Baffin Bays Lady Ann Strait and it is separated from Ellesmere Island by Glacier Strait, Devon Island is to the south. Elsewhere in Nunavut, there is also a tiny Saxe-Coburg Island, lying in Davis Strait, south of Leopold Island, the island is characterized by cliffs, rocky shores, and tundra. Bowhead whale, narwhal, polar bear, seal, walrus, coburg Island has several designated conservation classifications including International Biological Program site and Key Migratory Bird Terrestrial Habitat site. Along with the marine area, the island is a part of the Nirjutiqavvik National Wildlife Area. A portion of Cambridge Point is within the NWA, coburg Island in the Atlas of Canada - Toporama, Natural Resources Canada
Coburg Island
–
Seabirds are nesting at Coburg Island
Coburg Island
–
Seabirds and iceberg at Coburg Island
21.
Devon Island
–
Devon Island is the largest uninhabited island on Earth. It is located in Baffin Bay, Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut and it is one of the larger members of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, the second-largest of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, Canadas sixth largest island, and the 27th-largest island in the world. It comprises 55,247 km2 of Precambrian gneiss and Paleozoic siltstones and shales, the highest point is the Devon Ice Cap at 1,920 m which is part of the Arctic Cordillera. Devon Island contains several mountain ranges, such as the Treuter Mountains, Haddington Range. Robert Bylot and William Baffin were the first Europeans to sight the island in 1616, William Edward Parry charted its south coast in 1819-20, and named it North Devon, after Devon in England, a name which was changed to Devon Island by the end of the 1800s. In 1850 Edwin De Haven sailed up Wellington Channel and sighted the Grinnell Peninsula, an outpost was established at Dundas Harbour in 1924, and it was leased to Hudsons Bay Company nine years later. The collapse of fur prices led to the dispersal of 53 Baffin Island Inuit families on the island in 1934 and it was considered a disaster due to wind conditions and the much colder climate, and the Inuit chose to leave in 1936. Dundas Harbour was populated again in the late 1940s, but it was closed again in 1951, only the ruins of a few buildings remain. Animal life is concentrated in the Truelove Lowland area of the island, temperatures during the brief growing season seldom exceed 10 °C, and in winter can plunge to as low as −50 °C. With a polar desert ecology, Devon Island receives very little precipitation, cape Liddon is an Important Bird Area notable for its black guillemot and northern fulmar populations. Cape Vera, another IBA site, is noted for its northern fulmar population. Devon Island is also notable for the presence of the Haughton impact crater, the impact left a crater about 23 km in diameter, which was a lake for several million years. The Devon Island Research Station was established in 1960 and it is maintained by the Arctic Institute of North America and it is located in Truelove Lowland, on the northeast coast of Devon Island. The Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station project entered its third season in 2004, in July 2004, Devon Island became the temporary home for five scientists and two journalists, who were to use the Mars-like environment to simulate living and working on the Red Planet. April 2007 through 21 August 2007 was the longest simulation period, the Haughton crater is now considered one of Earths best Mars analog sites. It is the home to a complementary scientific program, NASAs Haughton Mars Project. HMP has conducted geological, hydrological, botanical, and microbiological studies in this harsh environment since 1997, hMP-2008 is the twelfth field season at Devon Island. In 2007, fossils of the seal ancestor Puijila darwini were found on the island
Devon Island
–
Truelove Lowland, a polar oasis located in Devon Island
Devon Island
–
Patterned ground permafrost pattern seen on Devon Island
Devon Island
–
Satellite photo montage of Devon Island and its neighbours
22.
Bylot Island
–
Bylot Island lies off the northern end of Baffin Island in Nunavut Territory, Canada. Eclipse Sound to the southeast and Navy Board Inlet to the southwest separate it from Baffin Island, parry Channel lies to its northwest. At 11,067 km2 it is ranked 71st largest island in the world, the island measures 180 km east to west and 110 km north to south and is one of the largest uninhabited islands in the world. While there are no permanent settlements on this Canadian Arctic island, Inuit from Pond Inlet, an Inuit seasonal hunting camp is located southwest of Cape Graham Moore. The islands mountains are part of the Byam Martin Mountains, which is part of the Baffin Mountains of the Arctic Cordillera, in addition to Angilaaq Mountain, Malik Mountain, Mount St. Hans, and Mount Thule are notable. Tay Bay is on the west coast, vertical cliffs along the coastline are made up of Precambrian dolomite. The western shore faces Navy Board Inlet, the islands north shore, facing Lancaster Sound, is a polar bear maternity den area. Beluga, bowhead whale, harp seal, narwhal, and ringed seal frequent the area, the island is named for the Arctic explorer Robert Bylot, who was the first European to sight it in 1616. The whaling captain William Adams was the first to prove the islands insular nature in 1872, almost all of the island is within the Sirmilik National Park, harbouring large populations of thick-billed murres, black-legged kittiwakes and greater snow geese. The eastern area of the island is designated as the Bylot Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary. Three areas are classified as Canadian Important Bird Areas, Cape Graham Moore, Cape Hay, audet, Benoît, Gauthier, Gilles, and Lévesque, Esther, Feeding Ecology of Greater Snow Goose Goslings in Mesic Tundra on Bylot Island, Nunavut, Canada, The Condor. 2,361 Drury, W. H. and Drury, Mary B, the Bylot Island Expedition, Massachusetts Audubon Society,1955 Falconer, G. Glaciers of Northern Baffin and Bylot Islands, NWT, Ottawa, Geographical Branch, Dept. 3,229 Hofmann, H. J. and Jackson, G. D. Shale-Facies Microfossils from the Proterozoic Bylot Supergroup, Baffin Island, travel literature of a research trip to Bylot Island in 1954. An account of a crossing of Bylot Island in 1963, Bylot Island in the Atlas of Canada - Toporama, Natural Resources Canada
Bylot Island
–
Bylot Island
Bylot Island
–
"The Mothership", a 3-mile wide terminal lobe of a glacier flowing down from the interior ice cap on top of the Byam Martin Mountains. Note the dramatic
terminal moraine "bulldozed" at the ice front.
23.
Cape Graham Moore
–
Cape Graham Moore is an uninhabited headland on Bylot Island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. It is located at the southeastern tip protruding into Lancaster Sound. The community of Pond Inlet is 70 km to the southwest and it is named in honour of Vice-Admiral Sir Graham Moore. The habitat is characterized by rocky shores and coastal cliffs that reach an elevation of 150 m above sea level, the cape is a Canadian Important Bird Area, an International Biological Program site, Key Marine Habitat site, and Key Migratory Bird Terrestrial Habitat site. Other IBAs on the island include Cape Hay and Southwest Bylot plain, the cape is part of the Bylot Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary. Notable bird species include the black-legged kittiwake and thick-billed murre, both of which are colonial seabirds, the area is also frequented by bowhead whales, narwhals, polar bears, harp seals, and white whales. Cape Graham Moore at the Atlas of Canada
Cape Graham Moore
–
Kittiwakes at Cape Graham Moore
24.
Hudson Strait
–
Hudson Strait links the Atlantic Ocean to Hudson Bay in Canada. This strait lies between Baffin Island and Nunavik, with its entrance marked by Cape Chidley in Quebec. The strait is about 450 mi long and its width varies from 150 mi at its largest point, to a minimum of 40 mi. The name was changed to Hudson Strait in honor of the first European to sail beyond the Furious Overfall in 1610, Hudson was followed by Thomas Button in 1612, and a more detailed mapping expedition led by William Baffin in 1615. Hudson Strait links the northern seaports of Manitoba and Ontario with the Atlantic Ocean and it could be an eastern entrance to the Northwest Passage were it not for ice in the Fury and Hecla Strait south of western Baffin Island. The South coast of Baffin Island between Lloyd Point and East Bluff, the mainland between Cape Chidley and Nuvuk Point
Hudson Strait
–
The Hudson's Bay Company ships Prince of Wales and Eddystone bartering with the
Inuit off the Upper Savage Islands, Hudson Strait; by Robert Hood (1819)
Hudson Strait
–
Nunavut
Hudson Strait
–
Drift ice in Hudson Strait, late June 2014
25.
Dorset culture
–
The Dorset culture was a Paleo-Eskimo culture that preceded the Inuit in the Arctic of North America. It is named after Cape Dorset in Nunavut, Canada where the first evidence of its existence was found, the culture has been defined as having four phases due to the distinct differences in the technologies relating to hunting and tool making. Artifacts include distinctive triangular end-blades, soapstone lamps, and burins, the Dorset were first identified as a separate culture in 1925. Archaeology has been critical to adding to knowledge about them because the Dorset were essentially extinct by 1500 due to difficulties in adapting to the Medieval Warm Period, the Thule people, who began migrating east from Alaska in the 11th century, began the displacement of the Dorset. Modern genetic studies show the Dorset population were distinct from later groups, Inuit legends recount them driving away people they called the Tuniit or Sivullirmiut First Inhabitants. According to legend, the First Inhabitants were giants, taller and stronger than the Inuit, scholars now believe the Dorset and the later Thule people were the peoples encountered by Norsemen who visited the area. The Norse called these indigenous peoples skræling, in 1925 anthropologist Diamond Jenness received some odd artifacts from Cape Dorset. As they were different from those of the Inuit, he speculated that they were indicative of an ancient. Jenness named the culture Dorset after the location of the find and these artifacts showed a consistent and distinct cultural pattern that included sophisticated art distinct from that of the Inuit. For example, the carvings featured uniquely large hairstyles for women, much research since then has revealed many details of the Dorset people and their culture. The origins of the Dorset people are not well understood and they may have developed from the previous cultures of Pre-Dorset, Saqqaq or Independence I. There are, however, problems with this theory, these cultures had bow and arrow technology which the Dorsets lacked. Possibly due to a shift from terrestrial to aquatic hunting, the bow and arrow became lost to the Dorset, another piece of technology that is missing from the Dorset are drills, there are no drill holes in Dorset artifacts. Instead, the Dorset gouged lenticular holes, for example, bone needles are common in Dorset sites, but they have long and narrow holes that have been painstakingly carved or gouged. Both the Pre-Dorset and Thule had drills, Dorset culture and history is divided into four periods, the Early, Middle, Late, and Terminal phases. The Terminal phase was already in progress when the Thule entered the Canadian Arctic and it is probably closely related to the onset of the Medieval Warm Period, which started to warm the Arctic considerably around AD800. With the warmer climates, the sea ice became less predictable and was isolated from the High Arctic, the Dorset were highly adapted to living in a very cold climate, and much of their food came from hunting sea mammals through holes in the ice. The massive decline in sea-ice which the Medieval Warm Period produced would have had an impact upon their way of life
Dorset culture
–
Remains of a Dorset stone
longhouse in
Cambridge Bay, Nunavut
Dorset culture
–
Carving of Polar Bear
26.
Thule people
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The Thule or proto-Inuit were the ancestors of all modern Inuit. They developed in coastal Alaska by 1000 and expanded eastwards across Canada, in the process, they replaced people of the earlier Dorset culture that had previously inhabited the region. The appellation Thule originates from the location of Thule in northwest Greenland, facing Canada, the links between the Thule and the Inuit are biological, cultural, and linguistic. Evidence supports the idea that the Thule were in contact with the Vikings, in Viking sources, these peoples are called the Skræling. Some Thule migrated southward, in the Second Expansion or Second Phase, by the 13th or 14th century, the Thule had occupied an area currently inhabited by the Central Inuit, and by the 15th century, the Thule replaced the Dorset. Intensified contacts with Europeans began in the 18th century, compounded by the already disruptive effects of the Little Ice Age, the Thule communities broke apart, and the people were henceforward known as the Eskimo, and later, Inuit. The Thule Tradition lasted from about 200 B. C. to 1600 A. D. around the Bering Strait, Thule culture was mapped out by Therkel Mathiassen, following his participation as an archaeologist and cartographer of the Fifth Danish Expedition to Arctic America in 1921–1924. There are three stages of development leading up to Thule culture, they are Okvik/Old Bering Sea, Punuk, Birnirk and these groups of peoples have been referred to as “Neo-Eskimo” cultures, which are differentiated from the earlier Norton Tradition. There are several stages of the Thule tradition, Old Bering Sea Stage, Punuk Stage and these stages represent variations of the Thule Tradition as it expanded over time. And spread across the coasts of Labrador and Greenland and it is the most recent “neo-Eskimo” culture. Jenness identified the Bering Sea culture as a highly developed Inuit culture of northeastern Asiatic origin, a strong maritime adaptation is characteristic of the Thule, and the OBS stage, and then can be seen in the archaeological evidence. Both Kayaks and umiaks appear in the record for the first time. The toolkits of the people of the time are dominated by polished-slate rather than flaked-stone artifacts, including knives, projectile heads. There are many important innovations that emerged that allowed hunting to be more efficient, harpoon mounted ice picks were used for seal hunting, as well as ivory plugs and mouthpieces for inflating harpoon line floats, which enabled them to recover larger sea mammals when dispatched. These people relied heavily on seal and walrus for subsistence and it is easy to pick out OBS technology because of the artistic curvilinear dots, circles, and shorter lines that were used to decorate their tools. The chronological relationship between the Okvik and Old Bering Seas cultures has been the subject of debate and remains largely undecided, based mainly on art styles. The Punuk stage is a development of Old Bering Sea stage, with distribution along the major Strait islands, the Punuk culture was initially defined by Henry Collins in 1928 from a 16 ft deep midden on one of the Punuk Islands. Punuk is differentiated with Old Bering Sea through its artifact styles and house forms, as well as harpoon styles, Punuk settlements were larger and more common than earlier villages
Thule people
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Thule archaeological site
Thule people
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Inuk pointing out Thule site, 1995
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911), "Baffin, William", Encyclopædia Britannica, 3 (11th ed.), Cambridge University Press, p. 192
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911), "
