Arctic Archipelago

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The Arctic Archipelago, also known as the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, is an archipelago lying to the north of the Canadian continental mainland, excluding Greenland (an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, which is, by itself, much larger than the combined area of the archipelago) and Iceland (an independent country).

Situated in the northern extremity of North America and covering about Template:Cvt, this group of 36,563 islands, surrounded by the Arctic Ocean, comprises much of Northern Canada, predominately Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.<ref>Marsh, James H., ed. 1988. "Arctic Archipelago" The Canadian Encyclopedia. Toronto: Hurtig Publishers.</ref> The archipelago is showing some effects of climate change,<ref>Thinning of the Arctic Sea-Ice Cover</ref><ref>Arctic sea ice decline: Faster than forecast</ref> with some computer estimates determining that melting there will contribute Template:Cvt to the rise in sea levels by 2100.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

History

Around 2500 BCE, the first humans, the Paleo-Eskimos, arrived in the archipelago from the Canadian mainland. Between 1000 and 1500 CE, they were replaced by the Thule people, who are the ancestors of today's Inuit.

British claims on the islands, the British Arctic Territories, were based on the explorations in the 1570s by Martin Frobisher. Canadian sovereignty was originally (1870–80) only over island portions that drained into Foxe Basin, Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait. Canadian sovereignty over the islands was established by 1880 when Britain transferred them to Canada.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The District of Franklin—established in 1895—comprised almost all of the archipelago. The district was dissolved upon the creation of Nunavut in 1999. Canada claims all the waterways of the Northwest Passage as Canadian Internal Waters; however, most maritime countries view these as international waters.<ref name="dispute">Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Failed verification Disagreement over the passages' status has raised Canadian concerns about environmental enforcement, national security, and general sovereignty. East of Ellesmere Island, in the Nares Strait, lies Hans Island, ownership of which is now shared between Canada and Denmark, after a decades-long dispute.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Geography

File:Wfm baffin island.jpg
Satellite image of Baffin Island, the largest island by total area of the Arctic Archipelago

The archipelago extends some Template:Cvt longitudinally and Template:Cvt from the mainland to Cape Columbia, the northernmost point on Ellesmere Island. It is bounded on the west by the Beaufort Sea; on the northwest by the Arctic Ocean; on the east by Greenland, Baffin Bay and Davis Strait; and on the south by Hudson Bay and the Canadian mainland. The various islands are separated from each other and the continental mainland by a series of waterways collectively known as the Northwest Passage. Two large peninsulas, Boothia and Melville, extend northward from the mainland. The northernmost cluster of islands, including Ellesmere Island, is known as the Queen Elizabeth Islands and was formerly the Parry Islands.

The archipelago consists of 36,563 islands, of which 94 are classified as major islands, being larger than Template:Cvt, and cover a total area of Template:Cvt.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Template:Arctic islands After Greenland, the archipelago is the world's largest high-Arctic land area. The climate of the islands is Arctic, and the terrain consists of tundra except in mountainous regions. Most of the islands are uninhabited; human settlement is extremely thin and scattered, being mainly coastal Inuit settlements on the southern islands.

Reference map of Canadian Arctic Archipelago
Reference map of Canadian Arctic Archipelago

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Islands not on map

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Notes

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  • <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^A{{#if:| }} Population: 183<ref name=2021censusNU/>
  • <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^B{{#if:| }} Formerly Jens Munk Island
  • <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^C{{#if:| }} Formerly Vansittart Island
  • <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^D{{#if:| }} Formerly White Island
  • <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^E{{#if:| }} Formerly Big Island
  • <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^F{{#if:| }} Population: 593<ref name=2021censusNU/>
  • <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^G{{#if:| }} Population: 1,396<ref name=2021censusNU/>
  • <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^H{{#if:| }} Population: 1,010<ref name=2021censusNU/>
  • <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^I{{#if:| }} Population: 2,049<ref name=2021censusNU/>
  • <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^J{{#if:| }} Formerly Jenny Lind Island
  • <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^K{{#if:| }} Formerly Gateshead Island

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Communities

File:Bayview Iqaluit.JPG
Iqaluit
Community Island Region, territory Population<ref name=2021censusNU/><ref name=2021censusNWT/>
Arctic Bay Baffin Island Qikiqtaaluk, NU 944
Clyde River Baffin Island Qikiqtaaluk, NU 1,181
Iqaluit Baffin Island Qikiqtaaluk, NU 7,429
Kimmirut Baffin Island Qikiqtaaluk, NU 426
Pangnirtung Baffin Island Qikiqtaaluk, NU 1,504
Pond Inlet Baffin Island Qikiqtaaluk, NU 1,555
Sachs Harbour Banks Island Inuvik, NT 104
Qikiqtarjuaq Broughton Island Qikiqtaaluk, NU 593
Resolute Cornwallis Island Qikiqtaaluk, NU 183
Kinngait Dorset Island Qikiqtaaluk, NU 1,396
Grise Fiord Ellesmere Island Qikiqtaaluk, NU 144
Sanikiluaq Flaherty Island Qikiqtaaluk, NU 1,010
Igloolik Igloolik Island Qikiqtaaluk, NU 2,049
Gjoa Haven King William Island Kitikmeot, NU 1,349
Coral Harbour Southampton Island Kivalliq, NU 1,038
Cambridge Bay Victoria Island Kitikmeot, NU 1,760
Ulukhaktok Victoria Island Inuvik, NT 408
Total 23,073

Populated islands

Of the more than 36,000 islands, only 11 are populated. Baffin Island, the largest, also has the largest population of 13,309.<ref name=2021censusNU/> The population accounts for 67.37 per cent of the 19,355 people in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, 56.51 per cent of the population of the Arctic Archipelago, and 35.38 per cent of the population of Nunavut.<ref name=2021censusNU/><ref name=2021censusNWT/>

Island Population<ref name=2021censusNU/><ref name=2021censusNWT/> citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref><ref name="mil">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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(km2)

Area
(sq mi) 		Density
(km2) 		Density
(sq mi)
Baffin Island 13,039 507,451 Template:Cvt Template:Pop density Template:Pop density
Banks Island 104 70,028 Template:Cvt Template:Pop density Template:Pop density
Broughton Island 593 127.6 Template:Cvt Template:Pop density Template:Pop density
Cornwallis Island 183 6,995 Template:Cvt Template:Pop density Template:Pop density
Dorset Island 1,396 Template:Cvt 8 Template:Pop density Template:Pop density
Ellesmere Island 144 196,236 Template:Cvt Template:Pop density Template:Pop density
Flaherty Island 1,010 1,585 Template:Cvt Template:Pop density Template:Pop density
Igloolik Island 2,049 114.5 Template:Cvt Template:Pop density Template:Pop density
King William Island 1,349 13,111 Template:Cvt Template:Pop density Template:Pop density
Southampton Island 1,038 41,214 Template:Cvt Template:Pop density Template:Pop density
Victoria Island 2,168 217,291 Template:Cvt Template:Pop density Template:Pop density

Mapping

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See also

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References

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Further reading

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  • Aiken, S.G., M.J. Dallwitz, L.L. Consaul, et al. Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval[CD]. Ottawa: NRC Research Press; Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Nature, 2007. Template:ISBN.
  • Aiken, S. G., Laurie Lynn Consaul, and M. J. Dallwitz. Grasses of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Ottawa: Research Division, Canadian Museum of Nature, 1995.
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  • Bouchard, Giselle. Freshwater Diatom Biogeography of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada, 2005. Template:ISBN
  • Brown, Roger James Evan. Permafrost in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. National Research Council of Canada, Division of Building Research, 1972.
  • Cota GF, LW Cooper, DA Darby, and IL Larsen. 2006. "Unexpectedly High Radioactivity Burdens in Ice-Rafted Sediments from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago". The Science of the Total Environment. 366, no. 1: 253–61.
  • Dunphy, Michael. Validation of a modelling system for tides in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Canadian technical report of hydrography and ocean sciences, 243. Dartmouth, N.S.: Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 2005.
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  • Hamilton, Paul B., Konrad Gajewski, David E. Atkinson, and David R.S. Lean. 2001. "Physical and Chemical Limnology of 204 Lakes from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago". Hydrobiologia. 457, no. 1/3: 133–148.
  • Mi︠a︡rss, Tiĭu, Mark V. H. Wilson, and R. Thorsteinsson. Silurian and Lower Devonian Thelodonts and Putative Chondrichthyans from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Special papers in palaeontology, no. 75. London: Palaeontological Association, 2006. Template:ISBN
  • Michel, C Ingram, R G, and L R Harris. 2006. "Variability in Oceanographic and Ecological Processes in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago". Progress in Oceanography. 71, no. 2: 379.
  • Porsild, A.E. The Vascular Plants of the Western Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Ottawa: E. Cloutier, Queen's printer, 1955.
  • Rae, R. W. Climate of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Toronto: Canada Dept. of Transport, 1951.
  • Thorsteinsson, R., and Ulrich Mayr. The Sedimentary Rocks of Devon Island, Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Ottawa, Canada: Geological Survey of Canada, 1987. Template:ISBN
  • Van der Baaren, Augustine, and S. J. Prinsenberg. Geostrophic transport estimates from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Dartmouth, N.S.: Ocean Sciences Division, Maritimes Region, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, 2002.

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