Richards Island (Northwest Territories)
| Richards Island | ||
|---|---|---|
| Waters | Beaufortsee / Mackenziedelta | |
| Geographical location | 69 ° 20 ′ N , 134 ° 30 ′ W | |
|
||
| length | 85 km | |
| width | 42 km | |
| surface | 2 165 km² | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
Richards Island is a Canadian Arctic island in the Beaufort Sea and belongs to the Northwest Territories . With 2165 km² it is the largest in this body of water. It is uninhabited.
geography
Richards Island is located in the delta of the Mackenzie River, which is 4,260 km long with headwaters . The island is 85 km long and 42 km wide. With an area of 2165 km² it is the thirty-fifth largest in Canada. In the east it is separated from the mainland by the main channel of the Mackenzie River, in the west the narrower Reindeer Channel lies between Richards Island and the smaller neighboring islands of Langley Island and Kendall Island. In the north, Richards Island is bordered by the Beaufort Sea . About a quarter of the island is covered by water, the majority of which is made up of small lakes, of which there are several hundred and whose area is on average 33 hectares. The lakes are shallow and create a complex formation of contiguous bodies of water and streams interrupted by larger delta canals. Many of them arose from the partial melting of the permafrost , which led to water-filled depressions , i.e. lakes. This process is called thermokarst . Richards Island is very shallow, and the rest of the island is made up of rivers and frozen ground with only sparse vegetation. However, it is difficult to measure due to the labyrinth of many lakes, canals and wetlands.
Others
Although the island is uninhabited, several large oil and gas facilities exist there.
Richards Island was named in 1826 by the Scottish explorer and polar explorer John Richardson after the then Governor of the Bank of England , John Baker Richards .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Richards Iceland on Oceandots.com (Engl.) ( Memento of 23 December 2010 at the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Richards Island, Canada on the "Earth Online" website of the European Space Agency (ESA)
