Everything about Canadian Arctic Islands totally explained
The
Canadian Arctic Archipelago, also known as just the
Arctic Archipelago, is an
archipelago north of the
Canadian mainland in the
Arctic. Situated in the
northern extremity of
North America and covering about, this group of 36,563
islands comprises much of the territory of
Northern Canada – most of
Nunavut and part of
Northwest Territories.
The archipelago extends some longitudinally and from the mainland to
Cape Columbia, the northernmost point on
Ellesmere Island. It is bounded on the west by the
Beaufort Sea; on the north 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
Northwestern Passages. Two large
peninsulas,
Boothia and
Melville, extend northward from the mainland.
The archipelago contains 94 major islands (greater than ), including three of the
world's ten largest islands, and 36,469 minor islands. The sizeable islands of the archipelago (over, in order of descending size) are:
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 areas. Most of the islands are uninhabited; human settlement is extremely thin and scattered, being mainly coastal
Inuit settlements on the southern islands.
British claims on the islands were based on the explorations in the
1570s by
Martin Frobisher. Canadian sovereignty, originally (1870-80) only over island portions that drained into
Foxe Basin, Hudson Bay and
Hudson Strait, over all of them wasn't established until the 1880 transfer by Britain to Canada of the remaining islands; the
District of Franklin was established in 1895, which comprised almost all of the archipelago; the district was dissolved upon the creation of Nunavut in 1999. Canada claims
sovereignty in a sector continuing to the
North Pole, a claim that isn't universally recognized. In addition, Canada claims all the waterways of the Northwestern Passages as
Canadian Internal Waters; however the
United States and most other maritime countries view these as international waters. Disagreement over the passages' status has raised Canadian concerns about environmental enforcement, national security, and general sovereignty.
Hans Island, in the
Nares Strait east of Ellesmere Island, is a territory currently contested between Canada and
Denmark.
Map with links to islands
Further Information
Get more info on 'Canadian Arctic Islands'.
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