Sverdrup Canal

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Sverdrup Canal
Sverdrup Canal between Meighen Island (center) and Axel Heiberg Island (bottom right)
Sverdrup Canal between Meighen Island (center) and Axel Heiberg Island (bottom right)
Connects waters Arctic Ocean
with water Peary Canal
Separates land mass Meighen Island
of land mass Axel Heiberg Island
Data
Geographical location 80 ° 0 ′  N , 97 ° 45 ′  W Coordinates: 80 ° 0 ′  N , 97 ° 45 ′  W
Sverdrup Canal (Nunavut)
Sverdrup Canal
length 65 km
Smallest width 41 km
Islands Fay Islands
Sverdrup Canal
Sverdrup Canal

The Sverdrup Channel ( English Sverdrup Channel ) is a strait in the Canadian territory of Nunavut . Located in the Canadian Arctic archipelago , it separates Meighen Island in the east from Axel Heiberg Island in the west.

geography

The Sverdrup Canal begins on the imaginary line between Perley Island on the northern tip of Meighen Island in the west and Bad Weather Cape at the entrance of the Li Fiord in the east and extends 65 km south to the Fay Islands . On some maps it extends 150 km to the northern tip of Amund Ringnes Island , where it merges into Massey Sound . At its narrowest point, the Sverdrup Canal is 41 km wide. Several fjords flow on its east side. The largest are the North and Middle Fiord . In addition to the Fay Islands in the middle of the channel, there are other small islands off the coast of Axel Heiberg Island.

The Sverdrup Canal remains covered by a layer of ice over five meters thick even in the summer months. In particularly warm summers such as 1998, however, the ice barrier can break open under the influence of the wind. The current in the Sverdrup Canal runs in a south-easterly direction and carries waters of polar origin. A maximum speed of 0.5 knots (0.9 km / h) was measured 2.3 m below the ice.

history

In May 1900 the first Europeans reached the Sverdrup Channel: Otto Sverdrup led an expeditionary team with dog sled from the Jones Sound lying Fram Coming on the west coast of Axel Heiberg Iceland along. Frederick Cook was probably the first to cross the canal in 1908. A map made according to statements made by the Inuit accompanying him shows an island west of Axel Heiberg Island, which is very similar to Meighen Island in size, shape and position. Cook has never claimed the discovery of the island, on which he is said to have rested one night, for himself. Meighen Island and the west side of the canal were therefore not officially discovered by Vilhjálmur Stefánsson until 1916 . The first proven crossing of the Sverdrup Canal was made by Hans Krüger in 1930.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c H. V. Serson: Sverdrup Channel (PDF; 1.0 MB). Defense Research Establishment Ottawa, DREO Technical Note 74-10, Ottawa 1974 (English)
  2. ↑ Circumpolar_IPY_2008.jpg on the Natural Resources Canada website
  3. ↑ Ron Kwok: Exchange of sea ice between the Arctic Ocean and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (PDF; 965 kB). In: Geophysical Research Letters 33, 2006, L16501. doi : 10.1029 / 2006GL027094
  4. ^ Otto Sverdrup: New Land . Volume 1, Longmans, Green & Co., London 1904, p. 398ff (English)
  5. ↑ Randall J. Osczevski: Frederick Cook and the Forgotten Pole (PDF; 1.2 MB). In: ARCTIC 56 (2), 2003, pp. 207-217
  6. ^ A b William James Mills: Exploring Polar Frontiers - A Historical Encyclopedia , Vol. 2, ABC-CLIO, 2003, ISBN 1-57607-422-6 , p. 421 (English)