Victoria Island

Victoria Island (Template:Langx) is a large island in the Arctic Archipelago that straddles the boundary between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories of Canada. It is the eighth-largest island in the world, and at Template:Cvt¹ in area, it is Canada's second-largest island. It is nearly double the size of Newfoundland (Template:Cvt), and is slightly larger than the island of Great Britain (Template:Cvt) but smaller than Honshu (Template:Cvt). The western third of the island lies in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories; the remainder is part of Nunavut's Kitikmeot Region. The population of 2,168 is divided between two settlements, the larger of which is Cambridge Bay (Nunavut) and the other Ulukhaktok (Northwest Territories).

The island is named after Queen Victoria, the British sovereign from 1837 to 1901. The features bearing the name "Prince Albert" are named after her consort, Albert.

History

File:VictoriaIslandMap.png

Closeup map of Victoria Island

Victoria Island was inhabited by the Thule culture, with five prehistoric qamutiik (sleds) belonging to the Neoeskimo culture being found on the Wollaston Peninsula, dating to 1250–1573 AD. The Inuinnaqtun name for the island is Kitlineq, with the local Inuit called Kitlinermiut (Copper Inuit).

In 1826 John Richardson was the first European to see the southwest coast and called it "Wollaston Land". In 1839, Peter Warren Dease and Thomas Simpson followed its southeast coast and called it "Victoria Land". A map published by John Barrow in 1846 shows a complete blank from these two lands north to "Banks Land" which is the north coast of Banks Island. In 1851 John Rae charted its entire south coast and connected the two "lands". In 1850 and 1851 Robert McClure circumnavigated most of Banks Island, thereby separating it from the rest of Victoria Land. His men also charted the northwest and west coasts of Victoria Island.

One of Roald Amundsen's men, Godfred Hansen, charted its east coast as far as Cape Nansen in 1905, and in 1916 and 1917 Storker T. Storkerson, of Vilhjalmur Stefansson's Canadian Arctic Expedition, charted its northeast coast, sighting the Storkerson Peninsula.

In 2008 Clark Carter and Chris Bray became the first recorded people to walk across Victoria Island. Their first attempt at the Template:Cvt trek in 2005 failed, so they returned and completed the remaining Template:Cvt in 2008.

Geography

File:Victoria topo.png

Topography of Victoria Island

File:Arctic CopperNunavut.jpg

Large native copper specimen from the Saneraum Hills, Victoria Island

Viscount Melville Sound^map1 lies to the north, and the M'Clintock Channel^map2 and Victoria Strait^map3 lie eastward. On the west are Amundsen Gulf^map4 and Banks Island,^map5 which is separated from Victoria by a long sound called the Prince of Wales Strait.^map6 To the south (from west to east) lie the Dolphin and Union Strait,^map7 Austin Bay,^map8 Coronation Gulf^map9 and the Dease Strait.^map10

The southern waterways, and sometimes the Prince of Wales Strait, form part of the disputed Northwest Passage which the Government of Canada claims are Canadian Internal Waters, while other nations state they are either territorial waters or international waters.

Victoria Island is an island of peninsulas, having a heavily indented coastline with many inlets. In the east, pointing northwards, is the Storkerson Peninsula,^map11 which ends with the Goldsmith Channel,^map12 the body of water separating Victoria from Stefansson Island.^map13 The Storkerson Peninsula is separated from the island's north-central areas by Hadley Bay,^map14 a major inlet. Another, broad peninsula is found in the north, Prince Albert Peninsula.^map15 This ends at the Prince of Wales Strait. In the south, and pointing westwards, is the Wollaston Peninsula,^map16 separated from the island's central areas by Prince Albert Sound.

The highest point of Victoria Island is Template:Cvt in the Shaler Mountains^map17 in the north-central region. Located in the southeast, just north of Cambridge Bay, is Tahiryuaq (formerly Ferguson Lake)^map18. With an area of Template:Cvt, it is the largest lake on the island.

It was said by Andrew Hund in his book, Antarctica and the Arctic Circle: A Geographic Encyclopedia of the Earth's Polar Regions, that the island resembles a stylized maple leaf, the predominant symbol of Canada.

Victoria Island contains the world's largest island within an island within an island.

Climate

Victoria Island has a polar climate, with no month having an average temperature of Template:Cvt or higher, and is listed as ET on the Köppen climate classification. Summers are typically cool and rainy, with pleasant days and chilly nights. Winters are cold, dark, and long, with October being the snowiest month. Snowfall and frosts are possible all year round. Rainfall is usually limited to the summer months, when the temperature shortly rises above freezing for a few months before dipping back down for another 9 months of winter. Springs are typically sunny but still very chilly. Autumns are short and crisp, with more frequent cloud cover starting to appear during August and with September being almost constantly cloudy.

At Cambridge Bay, the sun is continuously below the horizon, polar night, from approximately 30 November to 11 January and above the horizon, midnight sun, 19 May to 22 July.

Biology

The Dolphin-Union caribou herd locally known as Island Caribou are a migratory population of barren-ground caribou, Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus, that occupy Victoria Island in Canada's High Arctic and the nearby mainland. They are endemic to Canada. They migrate across the Dolphin and Union Strait from their summer grazing on Victoria Island to their winter grazing area on the Nunavut-NWT mainland. It is unusual for North American caribou to seasonally cross sea ice and the only other caribou to do so are the Peary caribou, which are smaller in size and population, and also occur on Victoria Island.

Beyond caribou, Victoria Island supports a rich lichen flora that underpins tundra food webs. A 2018–2019 survey around Cambridge Bay and the nearby Wellington Inlier documented 237 lichen species (186 collected during the survey and 51 from earlier records), including 35 not previously reported from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Lichens, which are a major winter food for muskox and caribou, are especially common in drier habitats on rock and organic soils. Species turnover is high at local scales (only three species were found across all six surveyed areas, while about 40% occurred at a single locality) and distributions are governed mainly by water availability and bedrock chemistry: lime-rich tills around Cambridge Bay favour crustose communities, whereas the older, more acidic rocks of the Wellington Inlier support a different suite with relatively more foliose and Cladonia species. The flora shows little endemism, likely because much of the landscape has been ice-free for only about 5,000 years; with ongoing Arctic warming and "greening", continued monitoring is warranted to track any shifts in species and cover.

Demographics

In the 2021 Canadian census the population of the island was 2,168; 1,760 in Nunavut and 408 in the Northwest Territories. Of the two settlements on the island the larger is Cambridge Bay,^map19 which lies on the south-east coast and is in Nunavut. Ulukhaktok^map20 is on the west coast and is in the Northwest Territories. Trading posts, such as Fort Collinson^map21 on the northwest coast, have long been abandoned.

List of places by population

Name	Population
Cambridge Bay	1,760
Ulukhaktok	408

Maps

• ^map1 Viscount Melville Sound –
• ^map2 M'Clintock Channel –
• ^map3 Victoria Strait –
• ^map4 Amundsen Gulf –
• ^map5 Banks Island –
• ^map6 Prince of Wales Strait –
• ^map7 Dolphin and Union Strait –
• ^map8 Austin Bay –
• ^map9 Coronation Gulf –
• ^map10 Dease Strait –
• ^map11 Storkerson Peninsula –
• ^map12 Goldsmith Channel –
• ^map13 Stefansson Island –
• ^map14 Hadley Bay –
• ^map15 Prince Albert Peninsula –
• ^map16 Wollaston Peninsula –
• ^map17 Shaler Mountains –
• ^map18 Tahiryuaq –
• ^map19 Cambridge Bay –
• ^map20 Ulukhaktok –
• ^map21 Fort Collinson –

See also

• Parker's Notch
• Royal eponyms in Canada
• Tunnunik impact crater

Explanatory notes

• ^1 The United Nations Environment Programme says that Victoria Island has an area of Template:Cvt. However, the Atlas of Canada indicates the island is Template:Cvt.

Further reading

• Geological Survey of Canada, J. G. Fyles, D. A. Hodgson, and J. Bednarski. Quaternary Geology of Wynniatt Bay, Victoria Island, Northwest Territories. Open file (Geological Survey of Canada), 2718. 1988.
• Geological Survey of Canada, R. H. Rainbird, A. N. LeCheminant, and I. Lawyer. Geology, Duke of York Inlier, Victoria Island, Northwest Territories. Open file (Geological Survey of Canada), 3304. 1997.
• Geological Survey of Canada, D. A. Hodgson, and J. Bednarski. Preliminary Suficial Materials of Kagloryuak River (77F) and Burns Lake (77G), Victoria Island, Northwest Territories. Open file (Geological Survey of Canada), 2883. 1994.
• Gyselman, E. C., and L. K. Gould. Data on Amphidromous and Freshwater Fish from Central Victoria Island and Freshwater Systems Draining into Melville Sound and Elu Inlet, N.W.T., Canada. Winnipeg: Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans, 1992.
• Jakimchuk, R. D., and D. R. Carruthers. Caribou and Muskoxen on Victoria Island, N.W.T. Sidney, B.C.: R.D. Jakimchuk Management Associates Ltd, 1980.
• McGhee, Robert. An Archaeological Survey of Western Victoria Island, N.W.T., Canada. Ottawa, Ont: National Museums of Canada, 1971.
• Parmelee, David Freeland, H. A. Stephens, and Richard H. Schmidt. The Birds of Southeastern Victoria Island and Adjacent Small Islands. Ottawa: [Queen's Printer], 1967.
• Peterson, E. B., R. D. Kabzems, and V. M. Levson. Terrain and Vegetation Along the Victoria Island Portion of a Polar Gas Combined Pipeline System. Sidney, B.C.: Western Ecological Services, 1981.
• Rainbird, Robert H. Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Tectonic Setting of the Upper Shaler Group, Victoria Island, Northwest Territories. Ottawa: National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1991. Template:ISBN
• Washburn, A. L. Reconnaissance Geology of Portions of Victoria Island and Adjacent Regions, Arctic Canada. [New York]: Geological Society of America, 1947.

External links

• Template:Commons category inline