Queen Elizabeth Islands

Queen Elizabeth Islands, northern Canada.

  Nunavut

  Northwest Territories

  Quebec

  Greenland

The Queen Elizabeth Islands (French: Îles de la Reine-Élisabeth; formerly Parry Islands or Parry Archipelago) are the northernmost cluster of islands in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, split between Nunavut and Northwest Territories in Northern Canada.

Geography

The islands, together 419,061 km² (161,800 sq mi) in area, were renamed as a group after Elizabeth II on her coronation as Queen of Canada in 1953. Most are uninhabited, but their main industry is oil drilling.

First sighted by Europeans in 1616, the Queen Elizabeth Islands were not fully explored and charted until the British Northwest Passage expeditions and later Norwegian exploration of the 19th century.

These islands were known as the Parry Archipelago for over 130 years. They were first named after British Arctic explorer Sir William Parry, who sailed there in 1820, aboard the Hecla. Since the renaming of the archipelago in 1953, the term Parry Islands continued to be used for its southwestern part (less Ellesmere Island and Sverdrup Islands). The regional break down of the archipelago is therefore as follows:

• Ellesmere Island
• Sverdrup Islands
• Parry Islands

Ellesmere Island is the northernmost and by far the largest. The Sverdrup Islands are located west of Ellesmere Island and north of Norwegian Bay. The remaining islands further south and west, but north of Lancaster Sound, Viscount Melville Sound and McClure Strait have been carrying the name Parry Islands, which name until 1953 had also included the Sverdrup Islands and Ellesmere Island. South of Lancaster Sound, Viscount Melville Sound and McClure Strait are the remaining islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

Major islands

Many of the islands are among the largest in the world, the largest being Ellesmere Island. Other major islands include Amund Ringnes Island, Axel Heiberg Island, Bathurst Island, Borden Island, Cornwall Island, Cornwallis Island, Devon Island, Eglinton Island, Ellef Ringnes Island, Mackenzie King Island, Melville Island, and Prince Patrick Island.

Smaller islands

Other smaller but notable islands include; Beechey Island (74°43′N 091°51′W), which held the graves of Petty Officer John Torrington, Royal Marine Private William Braine, and Able Seaman John Hartnell, three members of Sir John Franklin's crew, Hans Island (80°49′41″N 066°27′35″W), a small, uninhabited barren knoll measuring 1.3 km² (0.50 sq mi) whose ownership is disputed by Canada and Denmark, the Cheyne Islands (76°18′22″N 097°31′12″W), three small (0.73 km² (0.28 sq mi) together) islands that are Important Bird Area (#NU049) and a Key Migratory Bird Terrestrial Habitat site (NU site 5) and Skraeling Island (78°54′42″N 075°37′58″W) an important archaeological site where Inuit (Dorset, Thule) and Norse artifacts have been found. They consist of Silurian and Carboniferous rocks covered with tundra.

Population

With a population of less than 400, the islands are nearly uninhabited. There are only three permanently inhabited places in the islands. The two municipalities are the hamlets of Resolute (population 229 as of the 2006 census), on Cornwallis Island, and Grise Fiord (population 141 as of the 2006 census, on Ellesmere Island. Alert with a population of 5 as of the 2006 census is an Environment Canada weather station, a Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) atmosphere monitoring laboratory on Ellesmere Island, has several temporary inhabitants due to the co-located CFS Alert. Eureka, a small research base on Ellesmere Island, has a population of zero but at least 8 staff on a continuous rotational basis.

Only seasonally occupied are Camp Hazen on Ellesmere Island, McGill Arctic Research Station on Axel Heiberg Island, and Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station on Devon Island.

Formerly manned stations were Mould Bay on Prince Patrick Island, Isachsen on Ellef Ringnes Island, and Fort Conger on Ellesmere Island.

Abandoned settlements are Dundas Harbour on Devon Island and Craig Harbour on Ellesmere Island.

Administration

Until 1999, the Queen Elizabeth Islands were part of the Baffin Region of the Northwest Territories.

With the creation of the Nunavut in 1999 all islands and fractions of islands of the archipelago east of the 110th meridian west became part of Qikiqtaaluk Region of the new territory, which was the major portion of the archipelago. The rest remained with the now-reduced Northwest Territories. Borden Island, Mackenzie King Island and Melville Island were divided between the two territories.

Prince Patrick Island, Eglinton Island and Emerald Island are the only notable islands that are now completely part of the Northwest Territories.

Below the level of the territory, there is the municipal level of administration. On that level, there are only two municipalities, Resolute and Grise Fiord, with an aggregate area of 450 km² (170 sq mi) (0.11 percent of the area of the Queen Elizabeth Islands), but with most of the population of the archipelago (370 out of 375). The remaining 99.09 percent are unincorporated area, with a census 2006 population of five, all in Alert.

Overview of the islands

According to the Atlas of Canada there are 34 larger and 2,092 smaller islands in the archipelago. With the exception of Ellesmere Island, they fall into two groups, the Sverdrup Islands and the Parry Islands:

Island	sub- group	Territory	Peak	Height m	Height ft	Area km²	Area sq mi	Rank Canada	Rank World	Coordinates
Alexander	Parry	NU	average elevation	60–180	200–590	484	187	66		75°52′N 102°37′W
Amund Ringnes	Sverdrup	NU	ridge	265	869	5,255	2,029	25	111	77°53′N 095°30′W
Axel Heiberg	Sverdrup	NU	Outlook Peak	2,210	7,250	43,178	16,671	7	32	79°26′N 090°46′W
Baillie-Hamilton Island	Parry	NU		200	660	290	110	91		75°53′N 094°35′W
Bathurst	Parry	NU	Stokes Mountain	412	1,352	16,042	6,194	13	54	75°46′N 099°47′W
Borden	Parry	NU/NT		150	490	2,794	1,079	30	170	78°33′N 111°10′W
Brock	Parry	NT		67	220	764	295	58	383	77°51′N 114°27′W
Buckingham Island	Parry	NU	Mount Windsor	150	490	137	53	137		77°12′N 091°00′W
Byam Martin	Parry	NU		153	502	1,150	440	42	294	75°12′N 104°17′W
Cameron	Parry	NU	Mount Wilmot			1,059	409	46	312	77°48′N 101°51′W
Coburg Island	Parry	NU		800	2,600	411	159	83		75°57′N 079°18′W
Cornwall	Sverdrup	NU	McLeod Peak	400	1,300	2,358	910	31	184	77°37′N 094°52′W
Cornwallis	Parry	NU		343	1,125	6,995	2,701	21	96	75°05′N 095°00′W
Devon	Parry	NU	Devon Ice Cap	1,920	6,300	55,247	21,331	6	27	75°08′N 087°51′W
Eglinton	Parry	NT		200	660	1,541	595	36	249	75°46′N 118°27′W
Ellef Ringnes	Sverdrup	NU	Isachsen Dome	260	850	11,295	4,361	16	69	78°37′N 101°56′W
Ellesmere		NU	Barbeau Peak	2,616	8,583	196,236	75,767	3	10	80°10′N 079°05′W
Emerald Isle	Parry	NT		150	490	549	212	63	466	76°48′N 114°07′W
Graham	Sverdrup	NU		175	574	1,378	532	38	265	77°26′N 090°30′W
Griffith Island	Parry	NU				189	73	110		74°35′N 095°30′W
Helena Island	Parry	NU	average in southern hills	220	720	327	126	85		76°40′N 101°00′W
Hoved Island	Parry	NU				158	61	125		77°32′N 085°09′W
Île Vanier	Parry	NU		200	660	1,126	435	44	298	76°10′N 103°15′W
King Christian	Sverdrup	NU	King Christian Mountain	165	541	645	249	60	420	77°45′N 102°00′W
Little Cornwallis Island	Parry	NU				412	159	75		75°30′N 096°30′W
Lougheed	Parry	NU		60–110	200–360	1,308	505	41	273	77°24′N 105°15′W
Lowther Island	Parry	NU	raised beach	106.5	349	145	56	133		74°33′N 097°30′W
Mackenzie King	Parry	NU/NT	Castel Butte	300	980	5,048	1,949	26	115	77°43′N 111°57′W
Massey	Parry	NU		210	690	432	167	71		75°59′N 102°58′W
Meighen	Sverdrup	NU		260	850	955	369	50	337	79°59′N 099°30′W
Melville	Parry	NU/NT		776	2,546	42,149	16,274	8	33	75°30′N 111°30′W
North Kent	Parry	NU		600	2,000	590	230	62	453	76°40′N 090°15′W
Prince Patrick	Parry	NT		279	915	15,848	6,119	14	55	76°45′N 119°30′W
Stor Island	Sverdrup	NU		500	1,600	313	121	87		78°59′N 085°50′W
remaining 2,092 islands		NU/NT				2,321	896		...	...
Queen Elizabeth		NU/NT	Barbeau Peak	2,616	8,583	419,061	161,800	...	...	78°05′N 095°10′W

See also

• List of islands of Canada
• List of Canadian islands by area

External links

• Bathurst Island at oceandots.com
• Cornwall Island at oceandots.com
• Meighen Island at oceandots.com
• Prince Patrick Island at oceandots.com