Deep in one of the breathtaking mountain ranges is Barbeau Peak, the highest mountain in eastern North America. This peak is part of one of the many mountain ranges that make up the Arctic Cordillera mountain range that stretches from the top of Ellesmere Island down to Labrador. Something that sets Ellesmere Island apart from most places is the fact that it is home to five ice fields. These ancient ice caps cover a remarkable portion of this island at the top of the world.
With each ice field, a number of glaciers slowly slide down into the valleys and plateaus. On the southern tip of Ellesmere Island is its only open community. Around the middle of the island, on the western shoreline, is a small research base and weather station. Weather researchers will even release balloons that track the atmosphere to develop weather modelling.
Alert is a Canadian Forces Station and weather station. Arctic Kingdom excels at exciting customizable adventures and is the premier wildlife tour company in the Canadian Arctic. After 20 years, we know what it takes to have a once-in-a-lifetime vacation that offers comfort and gourmet meals.
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The scientists from the University of Copenhagen initially thought they had arrived at Oodaaq, an island discovered by a Danish survey team in , to collect samples during an expedition that was conducted in July. The yet-to-be-named island is metres north of Oodaaq, an island off Cape Morris Jesup, the northernmost point of Greenland and one of the most northerly points of land on Earth. The tiny island, apparently discovered as a result of shifting pack ice, is about 30 by 60 metres in size and rises to about three to four metres above sea level, the university said.
Signing up enhances your TCE experience with the ability to save items to your personal reading list, and access the interactive map. The entire island is deeply incised by fjords , and the northern coast is extended by ice shelves — aprons of sea ice that are fused to the shore.
The north is dominated by the Mountains of Grant Land, a jagged chain of sedimentary rocks some , years old and shrouded in ice nearly m thick — remnants of the last Ice Age. Nunataks , or rock spires, project through the ice, and Barbeau Peak 2, m is the highest mountain in eastern North America. The land descends southward to Hazen Plateau, dominated by Lake Hazen, which is the largest lake in the polar region.
Ellesmere is a true polar desert, with only 70 mm of precipitation annually in some places. Consequently vegetation is sparse, although Ellesmere has a surprisingly diverse flora for such a high arctic region, including species of moss.
In , Quttinirpaaq National Park was created on the northern part of the island. Ellesmere is distinguished by a spectacular landscape, and an exceptional and fragile environment. Small herds of muskoxen are dispersed across Hazen Plateau, along with the remnants of a caribou herd documented by Arctic explorer Robert E. Peary in during his attempt to reach the North Pole. There are numerous species of birds and several other land mammals, but coastal sea ice discourages marine mammals.
Thirteen species of spiders are found on Ellesmere Island. Though the climate is extreme, a peculiar "thermal oasis" at Lake Hazen produces surprisingly warm summers. The frost-free period at Tanquary Fiord averages 55 days.
The sea ice around Ellesmere Island has diminished significantly in the past 25—50 years. As global warming continues, climatologists believe that the ice will keep shrinking. Massive ice shelves, such as the Ward Hunt and Ayles shelves, have lost hundreds of square kilometres in area. These changes are altering the habitat of aquatic microbial communities that play a significant role in the Arctic ecosystem.
Diminishing ice shelves threaten not only polar bears with extinction, but seals , walruses , caribou and other species as well. None of the standard climate models that incorporate sea ice had projected such a rapid decline, indicating that Arctic sea ice is more susceptible to climate change than was previously thought.
In the summer of , for example, a 65 km 2 ice shelf, called the Ayles ice shelf, which had jutted into the Arctic Ocean for over 3, years, broke away abruptly and drifted out of a fjord along the north coast of Ellesmere Island.
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