Coburg Island
| Coburg Island | |
|---|---|
| Waters | Arctic Ocean |
| Archipelago | Queen Elizabeth Islands |
| Geographical location | 75 ° 58 ′ N , 79 ° 20 ′ W |
 |
|
| length | 38 km |
| width | 23 km |
| surface | 344 km² |
| Highest elevation | 823 m |
| Residents | uninhabited |
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Coburg Island (also Cobourg Island , Inuktitut : Nirjutiqavvik ) is located in Baffin Bay at the entrance to the Jones Sound between Ellesmere Island in the north and Devon Island in the south. It belongs to the Canadian territory of Nunavut and is one of the Queen Elizabeth Islands . The 76th northern latitude cuts the island in the middle.
The island is 344 km² and has an extension of 38 km between Phillips Point in the north and Cambridge Point in the south. Coburg Island is between 6 and 23 km wide and reaches a height of 823 m above sea level. 65% of the island is covered by glaciers . The 10 km², circular Laika ice cap is located on a peninsula facing southeast.
Average temperatures are –28 ° C in February and 4 ° C in July.
In the sea area around Coburg Island there are two polynjas , the Lady-Ann-Polynja south of the island in Lady-Ann-Strait and the north water ( English North Water Polynya ) in Baffin Bay. The almost always ice-free sea here offers many animals good living conditions. More than 300,000 seabirds breed on Coburg Island, including mainly kittiwakes ( Rissa tridactyla ) and black-billed lemurs ( Uria lomvia ), as well as eider ducks ( Somateria mollissima ), king eiders ( Somateria spectabilis ) and long-tailed ducks ( Clangula hymenalis ). There is a colony of around 3,000 pairs of the Fulmar ( Fulmarus glacialis ) on the Princess Charlotte Monument rock in the southeast of the island . In the bays on the southern tip of the island you can find walruses , ringed seals and bearded seals in summer . The polynyas are in winter by numerous whales , especially beluga whales , narwhals and Greenland whales , visited. Even polar bears are often found here.
The island was probably discovered in 1818 by John Ross on his expedition to find the Northwest Passage . It was named after the German Prince Leopold von Sachsen-Coburg , who was married to Princess Charlotte , the daughter of King George IV of the United Kingdom.
The island is now part of the Nirjutiqavvik National Wildlife Area . Cambridge Point is designated as an Important Bird Area (NU010) by BirdLife International .
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Atlas of Canada - Sea Islands ( Memento from October 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ↑ Coburg Island ( memento of January 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) on the website of the island encyclopedia oceandots.com (English)
- ↑ Cambridge Point, Coburg Island, Nunavut on the IBA Canada website