North Kent Island

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North Kent Island
Waters Norwegian Bay , Arctic Ocean
Archipelago Queen Elizabeth Islands
Geographical location 76 ° 40 ′  N , 90 ° 8 ′  W Coordinates: 76 ° 40 ′  N , 90 ° 8 ′  W
North Kent Island (Nunavut)
North Kent Island
length 41 km
width 22 km
surface 590 km²
Highest elevation 600  m
Residents uninhabited
North Kent Island in the south of Norwegian Bay
North Kent Island in the south of Norwegian Bay

North Kent Island is one of the Queen Elizabeth Islands in Nunavut , Canada .

geography

The island is located at the northwestern exit of Jonessunds between the Colin Archer Peninsula of Devon Island and the Simmons Peninsula of Ellesmere Island . It is separated from Ellesmere Island by the 4 to 6 km wide Hell Gate and from Devon Island by Cardigan Strait . North Kent Island is 41 km long and up to 22 km wide in the northern part. It has an area of ​​590 km². The flattened island plateau reaches a height of about 600 m above sea level in the south and is always covered by an ice cap of 150 km² . The coasts drop steeply into the sea. Only in the flatter north does the island merge into Norwegian Bay with a slight incline . The island is made up of Paleozoic sandstone , limestone and dolomite .

nature

North Kent Island is designated as an Important Bird Area (NU052) by BirdLife International . Thousands of seabirds nest on the cliffs at Hell Gate and on Calf Island , which is off the island to the southeast . Mention should be made of the black guillemot , the eider , the ice gull and the Thay gull . Since the sea in Hell Gate and Cardigan Strait does not completely freeze over, even in winter, some birds can even hibernate here. Marine mammals such as walruses , ringed seals , bearded seals , narwhals and beluga live in the adjacent waters . The polar bear can also be found here.

history

The island was discovered in May 1852 by Edward Belcher while searching for the missing Franklin expedition . The area was carefully explored and mapped by the Second Norwegian Fram Expedition 1898–1902. Otto Sverdrup reached the island by dog sled on April 13, 1900.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Atlas of Canada - Sea Islands ( Memento from October 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  2. ↑ a b North Kent Island on IBA Canada (English)
  3. ^ PB Latour et al. : Key migratory bird terrestrial habitat sites in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut (PDF; 12.5 MB). Canadian Wildlife Service, Occasional Paper No. 114, 2008, ISBN 978-0-662-46720-5 , p. 44, accessed on August 4, 2020 (English).
  4. ^ William James Mills: Exploring Polar Frontiers - A Historical Encyclopedia . tape 1 . ABC-CLIO, 2003, ISBN 1-57607-422-6 , pp. 76 ( limited preview in Google Book search). (English)
  5. ^ Otto Sverdrup: New Land . Volume 1, Longmans, Green & Co., London 1904, p. 466 (English)

Web links