Nansen sound

Nansen sound
Satellite photo of the Axel Heiberg Islands with the Nansen Sound
Connects waters	Arctic Ocean
with water	Eureka sound
Separates land mass	Axel Heiberg Island
of land mass	Ellesmere Island
Data
Geographical location	80 ° 48 ′  N , 90 ° 6 ′  W Coordinates: 80 ° 48 ′  N , 90 ° 6 ′  W
length	165 km
Smallest width	25 km
Greatest depth	1052 m
Islands	Krueger Island , Fjeldholmen Island , Little Fjeldholmen Island
Fjord system from Nansen Sound, Greely Fiord and Eureka Sound

The Nansen Sound (German also Nansensund ) is a strait of the Arctic Ocean in the Qikiqtaaluk region of the Canadian territory of Nunavut . Together with the Eureka Sound , it separates the islands of Ellesmere Island and Axel Heiberg Island .

geography

The Nansen Sound is part of an extensive fjord system. The distance from the beginning of the Tanquary Fiord over the Greely Fiord to the mouth of the Nansen Sound between Cape Stallworthy and Lands Lokk Point is about 400 km. Nine large side fjords are each between 20 and 60 km long. The system has a second exit to Norwegian Bay via the 290 km long Eureka Sound . The north-western branch of the system, Nansen Sound, is 165 km long and 25 km wide. Its greatest depth is 1052 m. The fjords that flow from Ellesmere Island in the northeast are named Emma Fiord, Ingeborg Fiord, Otto Fiord and Hare Fiord. The Flat Sound flows out on the southwest side. Lands Lokk Point at the entrance of the Nansen Sound are a few small islands, of which Krueger Island and Fjeldholmen Island are the largest.

Nansen Sound is often covered in ice, even in summer. In 1969 there was a 1500 km² ice plug in its mouth, which was more than 6 meters thick in its northern part and whose age was estimated at 21 to 32 years. He set out in the 1970s and left the fjord.

history

Otto Sverdrup , the leader of the second expedition with the Fram , named the fjord after Fridtjof Nansen , whose captain he was on the first Fram expedition from 1893 to 1896 . Sverdrup discovered (from a European point of view) large parts of the Canadian Arctic , reached the Nansen Sound in 1901 and sailed it in full length in 1902 with the intention of proving the island character of Axel Heiberg Islands. Even after its discovery, the strait was rarely visited by polar explorers. In the spring of 1906 Robert Peary crossed the sound from the northeast and reached today's Cape Stallworthy on Axel Heiberg Island. In March 1908, Frederick Cook followed the Nansen Sound on the journey that he said took him to the North Pole . In the spring of 1914 Donald MacMillan (1874-1970) also sailed the Nansen Sound in search of the phantom island of Crocker Land , which Peary claimed to have seen from Cape Thomas Hubbard in the north of Axel Heiberg Islands.

In 1930, Hans Krüger's small expedition , coming from Eureka Sound, moved on the frozen Nansen Sound to Cape Stallworthy and left a message in Peary's pile of stones. Henry Stallworthy (1895–1976) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police sailed the sound again two years later on the trail of Kruger, who has since disappeared .

Individual evidence

1. ^ William L. Ford, G. Hattersley-Smith: On the Oceanography of the Nansen Sound Fiord System (PDF; 1.15 MB). In: Arctic . Volume 18, No. 3, 1965, pp. 158-171 (English).
2. ↑ James PM Syvitski, David C. Burrell, Jens M. Skei: Fjords - Processes and Products . Springer-Verlag, New York 1987, ISBN 978-1-4612-9091-9 , pp. 56 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
3. ^ HV Serson: Investigation of a plug of multi-year ols sea ice in the mouth of Nansen Sound . Defense Research Establishment Ottawa, DREO Technical Note 72-6, Ottawa 1972 (English)
4. ^ Peter Wadhams: The Ice Cover . In: Burton G. Hurdle (Ed.): The Nordic Seas . Springer Science & Business Media, New York 2012, ISBN 978-1-4615-8037-9 , pp. 21–87 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
5. ^ William James Mills: Exploring Polar Frontiers - A Historical Encyclopedia . tape 1 . ABC-CLIO, 2003, ISBN 1-57607-422-6 , pp. 45 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
6. ↑ G. Hattersley-Smith, AP Crary, RL Christie: Northern Ellesmere Island, 1953 and 1954 (PDF; 5.7 MB). In: Arctic . Volume 8, No. 1, 1955, pp. 2-36 (English).
7. ^ William James Mills: Exploring Polar Frontiers - A Historical Encyclopedia . tape 2 . ABC-CLIO, 2003, ISBN 1-57607-422-6 , pp. 394 (English, limited preview in Google Book search).
8. ↑ CR Harington: HW Stallworthy (1895–1976) (PDF; 678 kB). In: Arctic . Volume 36, No. 3, 1983, pp. 300-301 (English).