Nelson Head

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Nelson Head is a Canadian Arctic hypsographic cape in the Northwest Territories. The most southerly point of Banks Island, it protrudes into the Amundsen Gulf.

Northern Canada Region in Canada

Northern Canada, colloquially the North, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. Similarly, the Far North may refer to the Canadian Arctic: the portion of Canada that lies north of the Arctic Circle, east of Alaska and west of Greenland. This area covers about 39% of Canada's total land area, but has less than 1% of Canada's population.

A headland is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape. Headlands are characterised by high, breaking waves, rocky shores, intense erosion, and steep sea cliff.

Northwest Territories Territory of Canada

The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately 1,144,000 km2 (442,000 sq mi) and a 2016 census population of 41,786, it is the second-largest and the most populous of the three territories in Northern Canada. Its estimated population as of 2019 is 44,826. Yellowknife became the territorial capital in 1967, following recommendations by the Carrothers Commission.

Contents

It is the ancestral home of Kangiryuarmiut, a Copper Inuit subgroup. [1]

The Kangiryuarmiut were a Copper Inuit subgroup. They were located on Victoria Island in the areas of Prince Albert Sound, Cape Baring, and central Victoria island. They were also found around Nelson Head on Banks Island. Kangiryuarmiut subsisted on bear. They were the only Copper Inuit who built iglooit on land. The Kangiryuarmiut speak the Kangiryuarmiutun subdialect of Inuinnaqtun dialect of Inuvialuktun language.

Copper Inuit ethnic group

Copper Inuit are a Canadian Inuit group who live north of the tree line, in what is now Nunavut's Kitikmeot Region and the Northwest Territories's Inuvik Region. Most historically lived in the area around Coronation Gulf, on Victoria Island, and southern Banks Island.

Naming

The cape was named Nelson's Head by Captain Robert McClure on September 7, 1850 during his western search for Franklin's lost expedition in honor of Lord Nelson, whose profile may have been suggested by the 'strikingly grand and imposing' features of the cape. [2] Nelson had not been previously honored by Arctic explorers.

Robert McClure Royal Navy admiral and arctic explorer

Sir Robert John Le Mesurier McClure was an Irish explorer of the Arctic who in 1854 traversed the Northwest Passage by boat and sledge and was the first to circumnavigate the Americas.

Franklins lost expedition British expedition of Arctic exploration

Franklin's lost expedition was a British voyage of Arctic exploration led by Captain Sir John Franklin that departed from England in 1845 aboard two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. A Royal Navy officer and experienced explorer, Franklin had served on three previous Arctic expeditions, the latter two as commanding officer. His fourth and last, undertaken when he was 59, was meant to traverse the last unnavigated section of the Northwest Passage. After a few early fatalities, the two ships became icebound in Victoria Strait near King William Island in the Canadian Arctic, in what is today the territory of Nunavut. The entire expedition, comprising 129 men, including Franklin, was lost.

Appearance

Described by Alexander Armstrong, ship's surgeon aboard HMS Investigator, the cape reaches over 1000 feet almost vertically from the water's edge:

HMS <i>Investigator</i> (1848)

HMS Investigator was a merchant ship purchased in 1848 to search for Sir John Franklin's ill-fated Northwest Passage expedition. She made two voyages to the Arctic and had to be abandoned in 1853, after becoming trapped in the ice.

'It is of limestone formation, the lower third of dark brown stratification, above which is assumed a lighter colour of reddish yellow, such as a ferruginous coating might impart. This was surmounted by a dark grey columnar formation, much resembling irregularly formed basaltic columns, with joints or fissures similar to what is usually observed in that formation; the whole capped by a covering of soil. [2]

Coordinates: 71°4′N122°46′W / 71.067°N 122.767°W / 71.067; -122.767

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.

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Northwest Passage Sea route north of North America

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Hudson Strait Strait connecting the Atlantic Ocean to Hudson Bay in Canada

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Victoria Island (Canada) island in arctic Canada

Victoria Island is a large island in the Canadian 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 217,291 km2 (83,897 sq mi) in area, it is Canada's second largest island. It is nearly double the size of Newfoundland (111,390 km2 [43,008 sq mi]), and is slightly larger than the island of Great Britain (209,331 km2 [80,823 sq mi]) but smaller than Honshu (225,800 km2 [87,182 sq mi]). It contains the world's largest island within an island within an island. The western third of the island belongs to the Inuvik Region in the Northwest Territories; the remainder is part of Nunavut's Kitikmeot Region.

Arctic Archipelago archipelago in northern North America

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Chukchi Sea A marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean north of the Bering Strait

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Axel Heiberg Island island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada

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Bylot Island island in Nunavut, Canada

Bylot Island lies off the northern end of Baffin Island in Nunavut Territory, Canada. Eclipse Sound to the southeast and Navy Board Inlet to the southwest separate it from Baffin Island. Parry Channel lies to its northwest. At 11,067 km2 (4,273 sq mi) it is ranked 71st largest island in the world and Canada's 17th largest island. The island measures 180 km (110 mi) east to west and 110 km (68 mi) north to south and is one of the largest uninhabited islands in the world. While there are no permanent settlements on this Canadian Arctic island, Inuit from Pond Inlet and elsewhere regularly travel to Bylot Island. An Inuit seasonal hunting camp is located southwest of Cape Graham Moore.

Amundsen Gulf A gulf in the Northwest Territories, Canada

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Cape Fullerton peninsula in Nunavut, Canada

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Cape Parry is a headland in Canada's Northwest Territories. Located at the northern tip of the Parry Peninsula, it projects into Amundsen Gulf. The nearest settlement is Paulatuk, 100 km (62 mi) to the south, and Fiji Island is located 9 km (5.6 mi) to the west. Cape Parry was formerly accessible through Cape Parry Airport that was located at the Distant Early Warning Line. The airport was listed as abandoned after the closure of the DEW line site.

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Fowlie Glacier is a tributary glacier, 13 nautical miles (24 km) long, in the Admiralty Mountains of Victoria Land, Antarctica. From a common head with Dennistoun Glacier, it flows northwest between Mount Ajax and Mount Faget, entering the main flow of the Dennistoun Glacier at the southeast base of the Lyttelton Range. It was named after Walter Fowlie of the New Zealand Antarctic Division, a field assistant with a New Zealand Antarctic Research Programme geological party to this area, 1981–82, led by R.H. Findlay. The original application of the name was revised in 1994 in relation to Dennistoun Glacier. This glacier lies situated on the Pennell Coast, a portion of Antarctica lying between Cape Williams and Cape Adare.

Cape Hattersley-Smith is a cape marked by a triangular rock peak at the southeast end of Condor Peninsula, 5 nautical miles (9 km) southwest of Cape Knowles, on the Black Coast of Palmer Land, Antarctica. The cape was photographed from the air by the United States Antarctic Service on December 30, 1940. It was surveyed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS)–Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition party from Stonington Island in November 1947 and was rephotographed by the U.S. Navy in 1966.

References

  1. ↑ Stefansson, V. (1914-12-30). "Prehistoric and Present Commerce among the Arctic Coast Eskimo". Geological Survey Museum Bulletin. 6: 14.
  2. 1 2 Armstrong, Alexander (1857). A Personal Narrative of the Discovery of the Northwest Passage. London: Hurst and Blackett. p. 211. Retrieved 2010-04-07.


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