Ward Hunt Island
| Ward Hunt Island | ||
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| Waters | Arctic Ocean | |
| Archipelago | Queen Elizabeth Islands | |
| Geographical location | 83 ° 4 ′ 47 " N , 74 ° 8 ′ 17" W | |
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| length | 5.5 km | |
| width | 3.2 km | |
| surface | 13.5 km² | |
| Highest elevation | Walker Hill 439 m |
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| Residents | uninhabited | |
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Ward Hunt Island is a small island north of Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic and, like them, belongs to the Queen Elizabeth Islands . Administratively, the island belongs to the Qikiqtaaluk region of the Nunavut Territory . The island is part of the Quttinirpaaq National Park .
Location and climate
Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap
Ward Hunt Island is embedded in the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf around 5 km north of Ellesmere Island in the mouth of the Disraeli Fjord in the Arctic Ocean . The north coast of the island is 83 ° 5 '53' N , 74 ° 14 '0 " W . This makes the island one of the northernmost land masses in Canada. Only the north coast of the Arthur Laing Peninsula around Cape Columbia is around 17 km further north.
There is a landing pad for Twin Otter aircraft on the north coast . Nearby are some shelters of the former Ward Hunt Island Camp station , which are run by Parks Canada.
Since 1998, a modern research station of the Center for Nordic Studies (CEN) of the University of Laval , Quebec has also existed on the north coast with an automatic climate station that measures all year round . In addition to the accommodations, the CEN base camp also has a small laboratory for the multidisciplinary field work carried out during the three summer months. The data obtained on climate , flora and fauna cover a period of more than 20 years and have been accessible since the measurements began.
The annual average temperature at the research station near the coast (5 m above sea level) is −16.7 ° C, the July mean −1 ° C, the February mean −33 ° C. The annual total precipitation, which is difficult to measure in this extreme climate, is 150 mm ( water equivalent ). The vegetation on Ward Hunt Island consists of a species-poor, sparse tundra.
Topography and geomorphology
The island is approx. 5 km long, 3 km wide and not glaciated . Some small perennial patches of snow are caused by drift snow. The island reaches a height of 439 m in Walker Hill in the west, the eastern part of the island is characterized by a lower, unnamed elevation of 243 m.
In the summer of 1988, an expedition with geodesists from Karlsruhe and geomorphologists from Gießen carried out an accurate survey of the island and mapped the high Arctic periglacial forms that occur here . The survey work on Ward Hunt Island enabled the production of a topographic map on a scale of 1: 25,000.
The geomorphological terrain mapping also made it possible to create a large-scale geomorphological map (GMK) on a scale of 1: 12,500, which shows the typical forms and processes in this extreme climate.
On the slopes of the island is Solifluktion prevalent with frequent solifluction lobes. Nivation is based on patches of snow and forms niches and praise. On the coast, raised beach terraces are broken by solifluction lobes. Frost pattern soils have formed especially on the hilltops. The permafrost in this extreme climate has a thickness of several 100 meters, however, the summer exchange layer is only 20 cm to 40 wt.
The geological substrate is of limestone in the northern part of the island and of igneous and metamorphic rocks and slate built in the southern part.
history
The island was discovered in 1876 by Pelham Aldrich , a participant in the British Arctic Expedition from 1875 to 1876 under George Nares and later Admiral of the Royal Navy , and named after the British statesman George Ward Hunt . As part of the International Geophysical Year (1957-1958), a weather station was operated on Ward Hunt Island . In 1959, the Canadian Defense Research Board (DRB) established a research station on the island that remained in operation until the late 1960s. Because of its location, the island was also the starting point for numerous expeditions to the North Pole (around 770 km), for example that of Ralph Plaisted (1927-2008) in 1968.
In 2002 and again in 2008, parts of the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf broke off near the island. Part of the ice shelf established itself as a so-called "ice island" off the north coast of Ward Hunt Island. This iceberg, which is stationary for a short time because it has run aground, with an area of 35.9 km² is misleadingly shown on some maps like the mainland. Its northern tip at 83 ° 8 ′ 12 ″ N , 74 ° 6 ′ 49 ″ W extends further north than Cape Columbia ( 83 ° 6 ′ 41 ″ N , 69 ° 57 ′ 30 ″ W ), but is not a mainland .
Web links
- Nordicana D information about the CEN research station (in English)
- Ward-Hunt map of the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences in 1: 25,000 scale
- View across the ice shelf to Ward Hunt Island
Individual evidence
- ↑ CEN climate data from Ward Hunt and North Ellesmere Island (English)
- ^ KING, L. et al .: Expedition to Ward Hunt Island (The Orbitex Arctic Ocean Research Project). - The Best of Switzerland, pp. 331-346, 1989.
- ↑ George Nares , Narrative of a voyage to the Polar Sea during 1875-76 . 2 vols. London (1878)
- ^ Geoffrey Hattersley-Smith: North of Latitude Eighty. The Defense Research Board in Ellesmere Island. Ottawa, 121 pp., 1974 (English).
- ↑ The Plaisted Expedition 1968 (English)
- ↑ Disintegration of the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf 2008 (English)