Ellesmere Island
is the largest of the Queen Elizabeth
Islands in the Canadian Arctic
Archipelago. Belonging to the
Nunavut territory of Canada, Ellesmere
is located off the northwest coast
of Greenland. Its Cape Columbia
is the most northerly point of
land in Canada. The world's tenth
largest island at 75,767 square
miles (196,236 square km), it
is Canada's third largest.
Hansen
Point
The Arctic Cordillera
mountain system covers much of Ellesmere
Island, making it the most rugged
island in the archipelago, with vast
ice fields and deeply indented coastlines.
Nunavut's highest point, Barbeau Peak,
reaches an elevation of 8,583 feet
(2,616 meters).
More than one-fifth
of the island has been turned into
a national park. Quttinirpaaq National
Park, in Inuktitut language, means
"top of the world." The
physical geography of Ellesmere Island
is stunning, with breathtaking scenery
and enchanting wildlife. Due to the
lack of industrialization, its Arctic
air is among the clearest on Earth.
Though much of the island is ice or
snow covered, the vegetation of its
snow-free areas supports herds of
musk oxen, caribou, and polar bears,
as well as the Arctic Hare and birds
such as the majestic Artic Tern.
The population is concentrated
in three small settlements (Eureka,
Grise Ford [Aujuittuq], and Alert)
and a weather station and military
outpost—the northernmost community
in North America. The combined population
of these settlements is less than
200. However, there are those who
venture here time and again, to conquer
what is affectionately called the
"Horizontal Himalayas."
History of Ellesmere
Island
The
first inhabitants of Ellesmere Island
were small bands of Inuit drawn to the
area for Peary Caribou, muskox, and
marine mammal hunting in approximately
1000-2000 B.C.E.
As was the case for the
Dorset (or Palaeoeskimo) hunters and
the pioneering Neoeskimos, the Post-Ruin
Island and Late-Thule-culture Inuit
used the Bache Peninsula region extensively
both summer and winter until environmental,
ecological and possibly social circumstances
caused the area to be abandoned. It
was the last region in the Canadian
High Arctic to be depopulated during
the "Little Ice Age," attesting
to its general economic importance as
part of the Smith Sound culture sphere
of which it was occasionally a part
and sometimes the principal settlement
component.
Vikings, likely from the
Greenland colonies, reached Ellesmere
Island, Skraeling Island and Ruin Island
during hunting and trading (with the
Inuit groups) expeditions. Unusual structures
on Bache peninsula are believed to be
the remains of a late-period Dorset
stone longhouse.
The first European to
sight the island after the Little Ice
Age was William Baffin, in 1616. It
was named in 1852, by Edward Inglefield's
expedition after Francis Egerton, 1st
Earl of Ellesmere. The American expedition
led by Adolphus Greely, in 1881, crossed
the island from east to west. The Greely
expedition found fossil forests on Ellesmere
Island in the late 1880s. Stenkul Fiord
was first explored in 1902, by Per Schei,
a member of Otto Sverdrup's 2nd Norwegian
Polar Expedition.
The Ellesmere ice shelf
was documented by the British Arctic
Expedition of 1875-76, in which Lieutenant
Pelham Aldrich's party went from Cape
Sheridan (82.47°N, 61.50°W)
west to Cape Alert (82.27°N, 85.55°W),
including the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf. In
1906, Robert E. Peary led an expedition
in northern Ellesmere Island, from Cape
Sheridan along the coast to the western
side of Nansen Sound (93°W). During
Peary's expedition, the Ice Shelf was
continuous; a modern estimate is that
it covered 8,900 km² (3,400 sq
mi).
Geography
The Ellesmere Island coastline
is incised by fjords, with its northern
coast extended by ice shelves. The landscape
is spectacular, ruggedly jagged. The
mountains of Grant Land on the Island's
north is formed by a chain of sedimentary
rocks some 100,000 years old, and shrouded
in ice nearly 2,953 feet (900 m) thick.
Rock spires break through this ice;
the highest mountain in North America
is on Ellesmere, Barbeau Peak, at 8,583
feet (2616 m).
While numerous species
of birds and land mammals make the Island
their home, sea ice discourages marine
mammals. Though the climate is extreme,
a peculiar "thermal oasis"
at Lake Hazen produces surprisingly
warm summers. Ellesmere is a true polar
desert, with only 2.75 inches (70 mm)
of precipitation annually in some places;
consequently, vegetation is sparse.
In July 2007, a study
noted the disappearance of habitat for
waterfowl, invertebrates, and algae
on the Island. According to John P.
Smol of Queen's University in Kingston,
Ontario, and Marianne S. V. Douglas
of the University of Alberta in Edmonton,
warming conditions and evaporation have
caused low water level changes in the
chemistry of ponds and wetlands in the
area. The researchers noted that, "In
the 1980s, they often needed to wear
hip waders to make their way to the
ponds…while by 2006, the same
areas were dry enough to burn.
Glaciers and ice caps
Large portions of Ellesmere Island are
covered with glaciers and ice, with
Manson Icefield and Sydkap in the south;
Prince of Wales Icefield and Agassiz
Ice Cap along the central-east side
of the island, along with substantial
ice cover in Northern Ellesmere Island.
The northwest coast of Ellesmere was
covered by a massive, 500 km (300 mi)
long ice shelf until the twentieth century.
The Ellesmere ice shelf reduced by 90
percent in the twentieth century due
to global warming, leaving the separate
Alfred Ernest, Ayles, Milne, Ward Hunt,
and Markham Ice Shelves. A 1986 survey
of Canadian ice shelves found that 48
square kilometres (19 sq mi) (3.3 km³,
0.8 cu mi) of ice calved from the Milne
and Ayles ice shelves between 1959 and
1974.
The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf,
the largest remaining section of thick
(>10 m, >30 ft) landfast sea ice
along the northern coastline of Ellesmere
Island, lost 600 km (370 mi) of ice
in a massive calving in 1961-1962. It
further decreased by 27 percent in thickness
(13 m, 43 ft) between 1967 and 1999.
The Osborn Range of the
Arctic Cordillera mountain systemThe
breakup of the Ellesmere ice shelves
has continued in the twenty-first century:
the Ward Ice Shelf experienced a major
breakup during summer 2002; the Ayles
Ice Shelf calved entirely on August
13, 2005; the largest break off of the
ice shelf in 25 years, it may pose a
threat to the oil industry in the Beaufort
Sea. The piece is 66 square kilometres
(25 sq mi). In April 2008, it was discovered
that the Ward Hunt shelf was fractured
into dozens of deep, multi-faceted cracks.
It seems likely the shelf is disintegrating.
You tube video
The Wildlife of Ellesmere
Island have seen little of humanity,
and the team gets up close and personal
with some Muskox and Wolves.
