McClure Strait
| McClure Strait | |
|---|---|
| Connects waters | Viscount Melville Sound |
| with water | Beaufortsee |
| Separates land mass | Queen Elizabeth Islands |
| of land mass | Banks Island |
| Data | |
| Geographical location | 74 ° 50 ′ N , 118 ° 5 ′ W |
 |
|
| length | 300 km |
| Smallest width | 75 km |
The McClure Strait ( German "McClure Strait" ) is a strait in the Arctic Ocean within the Canadian Northwest Territories . It forms the westernmost part of the Parry Channel and connects the Viscount-Melville-Sound in the east with the Beaufort Sea in the west. Located in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago , it separates Banks Island in the south from the Queen Elizabeth Islands Melville Island , Prince Patrick Island and Eglinton Island in the north. At its narrowest point, the McClure Strait is about 75 kilometers wide.
The strait is named after the British Robert McClure , who discovered the Northwest Passage . The McClure Strait is usually covered by pack ice even in summer . It was not until August 1954 that a ship, the icebreaker USCGC Northwind , passed through it. As a possible consequence of global warming , the McClure Strait was completely free of ice in 2007 for the first time since satellite observation began 30 years ago.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b William James Mills: Exploring Polar Frontiers - A Historical Encyclopedia . tape 2 . ABC-CLIO, 2003, ISBN 1-57607-422-6 , pp. 419 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Northwest Passage completely free of ice on spiegel.de
