Devon Island
Encyclopedia
Baffin Bay
Baffin Bay , located between Baffin Island and the southwest coast of Greenland, is a marginal sea of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is connected to the Atlantic via Davis Strait and the Labrador Sea...
, Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut
Nunavut
Nunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. It is one of the larger members of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago
Canadian Arctic Archipelago
The Canadian Arctic Archipelago, also known as the Arctic Archipelago, is a Canadian archipelago north of the Canadian mainland in the Arctic...
, the second-largest of the Queen Elizabeth Islands
Queen Elizabeth Islands
The Queen Elizabeth Islands are the northernmost cluster of islands in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, split between Nunavut and Northwest Territories in Northern Canada.-Geography:...
, Canada's sixth largest island, and the 27th largest island in the world. It comprises 55247 km² (21,331 sq mi) of Precambrian
Precambrian
The Precambrian is the name which describes the large span of time in Earth's history before the current Phanerozoic Eon, and is a Supereon divided into several eons of the geologic time scale...
gneiss
Gneiss
Gneiss is a common and widely distributed type of rock formed by high-grade regional metamorphic processes from pre-existing formations that were originally either igneous or sedimentary rocks.-Etymology:...
and Paleozoic
Paleozoic
The Paleozoic era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic eon, spanning from roughly...
siltstone
Siltstone
Siltstone is a sedimentary rock which has a grain size in the silt range, finer than sandstone and coarser than claystones.- Description :As its name implies, it is primarily composed of silt sized particles, defined as grains 1/16 - 1/256 mm or 4 to 8 on the Krumbein phi scale...
s and shale
Shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...
s. The highest point is the Devon Ice Cap
Devon Ice Cap
The Devon Ice Cap is an ice cap on eastern Devon Island covering an area of over . The highest point on Devon Island is found at the summit of the ice cap, with an elevation of . The ice cap has a maximum thickness of ....
at 1920 m (6,299.2 ft) which is part of the Arctic Cordillera
Arctic Cordillera
The Arctic Cordillera is a vast, deeply dissected chain of mountain ranges extending along the northeastern flank of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago from Ellesmere Island to the northeasternmost part of the Labrador Peninsula in northern Labrador and northern Quebec, Canada...
. Devon Island contains several small mountain range
Mountain range
A mountain range is a single, large mass consisting of a succession of mountains or narrowly spaced mountain ridges, with or without peaks, closely related in position, direction, formation, and age; a component part of a mountain system or of a mountain chain...
s, such as the Treuter Mountains
Treuter Mountains
The Treuter Mountains , formerly known as the Truter Mountains and the Trenter Mountains, are a small mountain range on eastern Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada. The Treuter Mountains are part of the Devon Ice Cap which forms part of the Arctic Cordillera mountain range.-External links:*...
, Haddington Range
Haddington Range
The Haddington Range is a mountain range on northeastern Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada. It is one of the northernmost mountain ranges in the world forming part of the Arctic Cordillera mountain system.-References:...
and the Cunningham Mountains
Cunningham Mountains
The Cunningham Mountains are a small mountain range on the southeastern coast of Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada. The Cunnington Mountains are part of the Devon Ice Cap which forms part of the Arctic Cordillera mountain range.-See also:...
.
Because of its relatively high elevation and its extreme northern latitude, it supports only a meagre population of musk ox
Musk Ox
The muskox is an Arctic mammal of the family Bovidae, noted for its thick coat and for the strong odor emitted by males, from which its name derives. This musky odor is used to attract females during mating season...
en and small birds and mammals; the island does support hypolith
Hypolith
In Arctic and Antarctic ecology, a hypolith is a photosynthetic organism that livesunderneath rocks in climatically extreme deserts such as Cornwallis Island and Devon Island in the Canadian high Arctic. The community itself is the hypolithon....
communities. Animal life is concentrated in the Truelove Lowland area of the island, which has a favourable microclimate
Microclimate
A microclimate is a local atmospheric zone where the climate differs from the surrounding area. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square feet or as large as many square miles...
and supports relatively lush Arctic vegetation. Temperatures during the brief (40 to 55 days) growing season seldom exceed 10 °C (50 °F), and in winter can plunge to as low as -50 C. With a polar desert
Desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
ecology, Devon Island receives very little precipitation.
Cape Liddon
Cape Liddon
Cape Liddon is an uninhabited headland on Devon Island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. It is located on the southwestern coast of the island at Radstock Bay.-Geography:...
is an Important Bird Area
Important Bird Area
An Important Bird Area is an area recognized as being globally important habitat for the conservation of bird populations. Currently there are about 10,000 IBAs worldwide. The program was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife International...
(IBA) notable for its Black Guillemot
Black Guillemot
The Black Guillemot or Tystie is a medium-sized alcid.Adult birds have black bodies with a white wing patch, a thin dark bill, and red legs and feet. They show white wing linings in flight. In winter, the upperparts are pale grey and the underparts are white. The wings remain black with the large...
and Northern Fulmar
Northern Fulmar
The Northern Fulmar, Fulmarus glacialis, Fulmar, or Arctic Fulmar is a highly abundant sea bird found primarily in subarctic regions of the north Atlantic and north Pacific oceans. Fulmars come in one of two color morphs: a light one which is almost entirely white, and a dark one which is...
populations. Cape Vera
Cape Vera
Cape Vera is an uninhabited headland on Devon Island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. Protruding off of the island's northwestern Colin Archer Peninsula, it faces Jones Sound...
, another IBA site, is also noted for its Northern Fulmar population.
Devon Island is also notable for the presence of the Haughton impact crater
Haughton impact crater
Haughton impact crater is located on Devon Island, Nunavut in far northern Canada. It is about in diameter and formed about 39 million years ago . The impacting object is estimated to have been approximately in diameter. Devon Island itself is composed of Paleozoic shale and siltstone overlying...
, created some 39 million years ago when a meteorite about 2 km (1.2 mi) in diameter crashed into what were then forests. The impact left a crater approximately 23 km (14.3 mi) in diameter, which was a lake for several million years.
History and settlement
Robert BylotRobert Bylot
Robert Bylot was a 17th-century explorer who made four voyages to the Arctic. He was uneducated and from a working class background, but was able to rise to rank of Master in the British Royal Navy....
was the first Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an to sight the island in 1616. William Edward Parry
William Edward Parry
Sir William Edward Parry was an English rear-admiral and Arctic explorer, who in 1827 attempted one of the earliest expeditions to the North Pole...
charted its south coast in 1819-20. In 1850 Edwin De Haven
Edwin De Haven
Edwin Jesse De Haven was a United States Navy officer and explorer of the first half of the 19th century.He was born in Philadelphia and became a midshipman at the age of 10, serving until 1857...
sailed up Wellington Channel
Wellington Channel
The Wellington Channel is a natural waterway through the central Canadian Arctic Archipelago in Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut. It runs north/south, separating Cornwallis Island and Devon Island....
and sighted the Grinnell Peninsula
Grinnell Peninsula
Grinnell Peninsula is a peninsula in northwestern Devon Island in Nunavut, Canada. Discovered by the Grinnell Expedition, who named it "Grinnell Land", after the financier of Arctic explorations Henry Grinnell.-Source:*-External links:*...
.
An outpost was established at Dundas Harbour
Dundas Harbour, Nunavut
Dundas Harbour is an abandoned settlement in Qikiqtaaluk, Nunavut, Canada. It is located on Devon Island at the eastern shore of the waterway also named Dundas Harbour...
in 1924, and it was leased to Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
nine years later. The collapse of fur prices and the need to cut relief expenses led to the dispersal of 53 Baffin Island
Baffin Island
Baffin Island in the Canadian territory of Nunavut is the largest island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, the largest island in Canada and the fifth largest island in the world. Its area is and its population is about 11,000...
Inuit
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
families on the island in 1934. It was considered a disaster due to wind conditions and the much colder climate, and the Inuit chose to leave in 1936. Dundas Harbour was populated again in the late 1940s, but it was closed again in 1951. Only the ruins of a few buildings remain.
An investigation by mysendoff.com discovered that the most northern cemetery in the world is located in Dundas Harbour on Devon island. Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
(RCMP) Constable Victor Maisonneuve was the first person to be buried in the island cemetery, he committed suicide on 16 June 1926 while seal hunting on the island at Crocker Bay. He was one of three officers to be transplanted to the island as part of the effort to assert Canadian sovereignty in the area. The second person to be buried on the island was RCMP constable William Robert Stephens, who accidentally shot himself while walrus hunting on 26 August 1927.
Two other marked graves stand in the cemetery, one is for baby Davidee Panipakichoo, who was born premature in December 1950 to one of the 53 Inuit families who were transplanted to the island.
Scottish whaler John Davidson is the other individual remembered at the site. He died in 1855 while hunting seals with his crew. He passed away from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
while on the hunt. His crew members buried him at Fellfoot Point on the other side of Devon Island, which was not discovered until several Hudson Bay Company employees discovered his dislodged and washed up marker in 1935. John C. Russell, the manager of the Hudson Bay Company outpost wrote in his journal "A board was picked up on the east side of Maxwell Bay which originally had served to mark a grave, it apparently had been dislodged by the wind and blown or drifted to where it was found. It is inscribed as follows: - In memory of John Davidson, Peterhead, who died 1st August 1885, aged 42 years, S.S. 'Resolute', 'Dundee'."
A replica of the headstone was placed at his resting place, and the original can be seen today at Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum in Iqaluit. The RCMP visits the cemetery once a year to ensure that the cemetery is properly maintained and to pay respects to the deceased.
Scientific research
The Flashline MARS (Mars Arctic Research StationFlashline Mars Arctic Research Station
The Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station is the first of two simulated Mars habitats established and maintained by the Mars Society.-Background:...
) project entered its third season in 2004. In July 2004, Devon Island became the temporary home for five scientists and two journalists, who were to use the Mars-like environment to simulate living and working on the Red Planet. April 2007 through 21 August 2007 was the longest simulation period and included 20 scientific studies.
The Haughton crater is now considered one of Earth's best Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
analog sites. It is the summer home to a complementary scientific program, NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's Haughton Mars Project. HMP has conducted geological
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, hydrological
Hydrology
Hydrology is the study of the movement, distribution, and quality of water on Earth and other planets, including the hydrologic cycle, water resources and environmental watershed sustainability...
, botanical
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
, and microbiological
Microbiology
Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, which are defined as any microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell , cell clusters or no cell at all . This includes eukaryotes, such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes...
studies in this harsh environment since 1997. HMP-2008 is the twelfth field season at Devon Island.
In 2007, fossils of the seal
Pinniped
Pinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semiaquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae , Otariidae , and Phocidae .-Overview: Pinnipeds are typically sleek-bodied and barrel-shaped...
ancestor Puijila darwini
Puijila
Puijila darwini is an extinct species of pinniped which lived during the Miocene epoch about 21 to 24 million years ago. Approximately a metre in length, the animal possessed only minimal physical adaptations for swimming...
were found on the island.