Hudson Bay

Coordinates: 60°N 085°W / 60°N 85°W / 60; -85 (Hudson Bay)
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For the outlet of the Hudson River, see New York Harbor.
For other uses, see Hudson Bay (disambiguation).
Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay, Canada
LocationNorth America
Coordinates60°N 085°W / 60°N 85°W / 60; -85 (Hudson Bay)
Ocean/sea sourcesArctic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean
Basin countriesCanada, United States
Max. length1,370 km (851.28 mi)
Max. width1,050 km (652.44 mi)
Surface area1,230,000 km2 (470,000 sq mi)
Average depth100 metres (330 ft)
Max. depth270 metres (890 ft)[1]
Frozenmid-December to mid-June
IslandsBelcher Islands,
Ottawa Islands
SettlementsChurchill, Sanikiluaq

Hudson Bay (Inuktitut: Kangiqsualuk ilua,[2] French: baie d'Hudson) (sometimes called Hudson's Bay, usually historically) is a large body of saltwater in northeastern Canada with a surface area of 1,230,000 km2 (470,000 sq mi). It drains a very large area, about 3,861,400 km2 (1,490,900 sq mi),[3] that includes parts of Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, most of Manitoba, and southeastern Nunavut, and parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana. Hudson Bay's southern arm is called James Bay.

The Eastern Cree name for Hudson and James Bay is Wînipekw (Southern dialect) or Wînipâkw (Northern dialect), meaning muddy or brackish water. Lake Winnipeg is similarly named by the local Cree, as is the location for the city of Winnipeg.

Description

Hudson Bay drainage basin

Hudson Bay encompasses 1,230,000 km2 (470,000 sq mi), making it the second-largest water body using the term "bay" in the world (after the Bay of Bengal). The bay is relatively shallow and is considered an epicontinental sea, with an average depth of about 100 m (330 ft) (compared to 2,600 m (8,500 ft) in the Bay of Bengal). It is about 1,370 km (850 mi) long and 1,050 km (650 mi) wide.[4] On the east it is connected with the Atlantic Ocean by Hudson Strait; on the north, with the Arctic Ocean by Foxe Basin (which is not considered part of the bay), and Fury and Hecla Strait. Geographic coordinates: 78° to 95° W, 51° to 70° N.

Hudson Bay is often considered part of the Arctic Ocean. For example, the International Hydrographic Organization (in its current unapproved working edition only[5] of Limits of Oceans and Seas) defines the Hudson Bay, with its outlet extending from 62.5 to 66.5 degrees north (just a few miles south of the Arctic Circle) as being part of the Arctic Ocean, specifically "Arctic Ocean Subdivision 9.11." Other authorities include it, in part because of its greater water budget connection, with the Atlantic Ocean.[6][7][8][9][10]

Some sources describe Hudson Bay as a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean,[11] or the Arctic Ocean.[12]

History

Canada, Routes of Explorers, 1497 to 1905

English explorers and colonists named Hudson Bay after Sir Henry Hudson who explored the bay beginning August 2, 1610 on his ship Discovery.[13]: 170  On his fourth voyage to North America, Hudson worked his way around Greenland's west coast and into the bay, mapping much of its eastern coast. Discovery became trapped in the ice over the winter, and the crew survived onshore at the southern tip of James Bay. When the ice cleared in the spring, Hudson wanted to explore the rest of the area, but the crew mutinied on June 22, 1611. They left Hudson and others adrift in a small boat. No one knows the fate of Hudson or the crew members stranded with him, but historians see no evidence that they survived for long afterwards.[13]: 185 

In 1668, Nonsuch reached the bay and traded for beaver pelts, leading to the creation of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) which still bears the historic name.[14] The HBC negotiated a trading monopoly from the English crown for the Hudson Bay watershed, called Rupert's Land.[15]: 4  France contested this grant by sending several military expeditions to the region, but abandoned its claim in the Treaty of Utrecht (April 1713).[16]

During this period, the Hudson's Bay Company built several factories (forts and trading posts) along the coast at the mouth of the major rivers (such as Fort Severn, Ontario; York Factory and Churchill, Manitoba). The strategic locations were bases for inland exploration. More importantly, they were trading posts with the indigenous peoples who came to them with furs from their trapping season. The HBC shipped the furs to Europe and continued to use some of these posts well into the 20th century. The Port of Churchill was an important shipping link for trade with Europe and Russia until its closure in 2016 by owner OmniTRAX.[17]

HBC's trade monopoly was abolished in 1870, and it ceded Rupert's Land to Canada, an area of approximately 3,900,000 km2 (1,500,000 sq mi), as part of the Northwest Territories.[15]: 427  Starting in 1913, the Bay was extensively charted by the Canadian Government's CSS Acadia to develop it for navigation.[18] This mapping progress led to the establishment of Churchill, Manitoba as a deep-sea port for wheat exports in 1929, after unsuccessful attempts at Port Nelson.

Due to a change in naming conventions, Hudson's Bay is now called Hudson Bay.

Geography

Extent

The International Hydrographic Organization defines the northern limit of Hudson Bay as follows:[19]

A line from Nuvuk Point (62°21′N 78°06′W / 62.350°N 78.100°W / 62.350; -78.100) to Leyson Point, the Southeastern extreme of Southampton Island, through the Southern and Western shores of Southampton Island to its Northern extremity, thence a line to Beach Point (66°03′N 86°06′W / 66.050°N 86.100°W / 66.050; -86.100) on the Mainland.

Climate

Polar bear walks on newly formed ice in early November at Hudson Bay.

The Hudson Bay region has very low year-round average temperatures. (The average annual temperature for Churchill at 59°N is −5 °C (23 °F); by comparison Arkhangelsk at 64°N with a similar subarctic climate in northern Russia has an average of 2 °C (36 °F).[20]) Water temperature peaks at 8–9 °C (46–48 °F) on the western side of the bay in late summer. It is largely frozen over from mid-December to mid-June when it usually clears from its eastern end westwards and southwards. A steady increase in regional temperatures over the last 100 years has been reflected in a lengthening of the ice-free period which was as short as four months in the late 17th century.[21]

Waters

In late spring (May), large chunks of ice float near the eastern shore of the bay, while the center of the bay remains frozen to the west. Between 1971 and 2007, the length of the ice-free season increased by about seven days in the southwestern part of the Hudson Bay, historically the last area to thaw.

Hudson Bay has a lower average salinity level than that of ocean water. The main causes are the low rate of evaporation (the bay is ice-covered for much of the year), the large volume of terrestrial runoff entering the bay (about 700 km3 (170 cu mi) annually, the Hudson Bay watershed covering much of Canada, many rivers and streams discharging into the bay), and the limited connection with the Atlantic Ocean and its higher salinity. Sea ice is about three times the annual river flow into the bay, and its annual freezing and thawing significantly alters the salinity of the surface layer.

One consequence of the lower salinity of the bay is that the freezing point of the water is higher than in the rest of the world's oceans, thus decreasing the time that the bay remains ice-free.

Shores

The western shores of the bay are a lowland known as the Hudson Bay Lowlands which covers 324,000 km2 (125,000 sq mi). The area is drained by a large number of rivers and has formed a characteristic vegetation known as muskeg. Much of the landform has been shaped by the actions of glaciers and the shrinkage of the bay over long periods of time. Signs of numerous former beachfronts can be seen far inland from the current shore. A large portion of the lowlands in the province of Ontario is part of the Polar Bear Provincial Park, and a similar portion of the lowlands in Manitoba is contained in Wapusk National Park, the latter location being a significant polar bear maternity denning area.[22]

In contrast, most of the eastern shores (the Quebec portion) form the western edge of the Canadian Shield in Quebec. The area is rocky and hilly. Its vegetation is typically boreal forest, and to the north, tundra.

Measured by shoreline, Hudson Bay is the largest bay in the world (the largest in area being the Bay of Bengal).

Islands

There are many islands in Hudson Bay, mostly near the eastern coast. All, as are the islands in James Bay, are part of the territory Nunavut and several are disputed by the Cree.[23] One group of islands is the Belcher Islands. Another group includes the Ottawa Islands.

Geology

Map of post-glacial rebound. Hudson Bay is in the region of the most rapid uplift.

The Bay is near the centre of a major gravity anomaly which has been mapped in some detail by the GRACE satellites. Current theory suggests that about two-thirds of this effect is due to downwards mantle convection under the bay area, while one-third is due to post-glacial rebound since the Laurentide Ice Sheet melted. Lands to the west of the Bay are rising as much as 17 mm (0.67 in) per year.[24]

Some geologists disagree about what created the semicircular feature, known as the Nastapoka arc, of the bay. The overwhelming consensus is that it is an arcuate boundary of tectonic origin between the Belcher Fold Belt and undeformed basement of the Superior Craton created during the Trans-Hudson orogen.

Some geologists have argued that Hudson Bay is possibly related to a Precambrian extraterrestrial impact and have compared it to Mare Crisium on the Moon. However, no credible evidence for such an impact crater has been found by regional magnetic, Bouguer gravity, and geologic studies.[25]

Economy

Arctic Bridge

The Arctic Bridge shipping route (blue line) is hoped to link North America to markets in Europe and Asia using ice-free routes across the Arctic Ocean

The longer periods of ice-free navigation and the reduction of Arctic Ocean ice coverage have led to Russian and Canadian interest in the potential for commercial trade routes across the Arctic and into Hudson Bay. The so-called Arctic Bridge would link Churchill, Manitoba, and the Russian port of Murmansk.[26]

Coastal communities

The coast of Hudson Bay is extremely sparsely populated; there are only about a dozen communities. Some of these were founded as trading posts in the 17th and 18th centuries by the Hudson's Bay Company, making them some of the oldest settlements in Western Canada. With the closure of the HBC posts and stores, although many are now run by The North West Company,[27] in the second half of the 20th century, many coastal villages are now almost exclusively populated by Cree and Inuit people. Two main historic sites along the coast were York Factory and Prince of Wales Fort.

Communities along the Hudson Bay coast or on islands in the bay are (all populations are as of 2016):

Military development

The Hudson's Bay Company built forts as fur trade strongholds against the French or other possible invaders. One example is York Factory with angled walls to help defend the fort. In the 1950s, during the Cold War, a few sites along the coast became part of the Mid-Canada Line, watching for a potential Soviet bomber attack over the North Pole. The only Arctic deep-water port in Canada is the Port of Churchill, located at Churchill, Manitoba.

See also

References

  1. ^ Hudson Bay | sea, Canada | Britannica.com
  2. ^ Wissenladen.de
  3. ^ "Canada Drainage Basins". The National Atlas of Canada, 5th edition. Natural Resources Canada. 1985. Retrieved 24 November 2010.
  4. ^ Private Tutor. Infoplease.com. Retrieved on 2014-04-12.
  5. ^ "IHO Publication S-23 Limits of Oceans and Seas; Chapter 9: Arctic Ocean". International Hydrographic Organization. 2002. Retrieved 2017-07-01.
  6. ^ Lewis, Edward Lyn; Jones, E. Peter; et al., eds. (2000). The Freshwater Budget of the Arctic Ocean. Springer. pp. 101, 282–283. ISBN 978-0-7923-6439-9. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
  7. ^ McColl, R.W. (2005). Encyclopedia of World Geography. Infobase Publishing. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-8160-5786-3. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
  8. ^ Earle, Sylvia A.; Glover, Linda K. (2008). Ocean: An Illustrated Atlas. National Geographic Books. p. 112. ISBN 978-1-4262-0319-0. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
  9. ^ Reddy, M. P. M. (2001). Descriptive Physical Oceanography. Taylor & Francis. p. 8. ISBN 978-90-5410-706-4. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
  10. ^ Day, Trevor; Garratt, Richard (2006). Oceans. Infobase Publishing. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-8160-5327-8. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
  11. ^ Calow, Peter (12 July 1999). Blackwell's concise encyclopedia of environmental management. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-632-04951-6. Retrieved 29 November 2010.
  12. ^ Wright, John (30 November 2001). The New York Times Almanac 2002. Psychology Press. p. 459. ISBN 978-1-57958-348-4. Retrieved 29 November 2010.
  13. ^ a b Butts, Edward (2009-12-31). Henry Hudson: New World voyager. Dundurn Press Ltd. p. 170. ISBN 978-1-55488-455-1. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
  14. ^ "Nonsuch Gallery". Manitoba Museum. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
  15. ^ a b Galbraith, John S. (1957). The Hudson's Bay Company. University of California Press.
  16. ^ Tyrrell, Joseph (1931). Documents Relating to the Early History of Hudson Bay: The Publications of the Champlain Society. Toronto: Champlain Society. doi:10.3138/9781442618336.
  17. ^ Port of Churchill shut down after being refused bailout, premier suggests
  18. ^ "CSS Acadia". Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. Archived from the original on 7 August 2011. Retrieved 1 August 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  19. ^ "Limits of Oceans and Seas, 3rd edition" (PDF). International Hydrographic Organization. 1953. Retrieved 6 February 2010.
  20. ^ GHCN climatic monthly data, GISS, using 1995–2007 annual averages
  21. ^ General Survey of World Climatology, Landsberg ed., (1984), Elsevier.
  22. ^ C. Michael Hogan (2008) Polar Bear: Ursus maritimus, globalTwitcher.com, ed. Nicklas Stromberg Archived 2008-12-24 at the Wayback Machine
  23. ^ Cree ask court to defend traditional rights on James Bay islands
  24. ^ Silverman, Jacob. "How can parts of Canada be 'missing' gravity?". HowStuffWorks. Retrieved 24 March 2012.
  25. ^ Eaton, D. W.; Darbyshire, F. (2010). "Lithospheric architecture and tectonic evolution of the Hudson Bay region". Tectonophysics. 480 (1–4): 1–22. doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2009.09.006.
  26. ^ "Russian ship crosses 'Arctic bridge' to Manitoba". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. 18 October 2007.
  27. ^ North West Company at a glance

Notes

  • Atlas of Canada, online version.
  • Some references of geological/impact structure interest include:
    • Rondot, Jehan (1994). Recognition of eroded astroblemes. Earth-Science Reviews 35, 4, p. 331–365.
    • Wilson, J. Tuzo (1968) Comparison of the Hudson Bay arc with some other features. In: Science, History and Hudson Bay, v. 2. Beals, C. S. (editor), p. 1015–1033.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hudson Bay.
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