| Whale Sound | |
|---|---|
| Hvalsund | |
  Whale Sound | |
| Location | NW Greenland |
| Coordinates | 77°17′N71°0′W / 77.283°N 71.000°W Coordinates: 77°17′N71°0′W / 77.283°N 71.000°W |
| Part of | Arctic Ocean |
| Ocean/sea sources | Baffin Bay Inglefield Gulf |
| Basin countries | Greenland |
| Max. length | 50 km (31 mi) |
| Max. width | 19 km (12 mi) |
| Frozen | Most of the year |
| Islands | Kiatak (Northumberland Island) and Qeqertarsuaq (Herbert Island) |
The Whale Sound (Danish : Hvalsund) is a sound in the Avannaata municipality, NW Greenland. [1]
It is a broad channel that runs roughly from east to west between the mouth of the Inglefield Fjord and Baffin Bay. Its minimum width is 19 km. [2]
The Whale Sound separates Steensby Land —part of the Greenland mainland— to the south from Kiatak (Northumberland Island) and Qeqertarsuaq (Herbert Island) to the north. The Murchison Sound leads from the Baffin Bay to the Inglefield Fjord on the north side of the islands. [3] the Olrik Fjord has its entrance at the eastern end of the sound.
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William Baffin was an English navigator, explorer and cartographer. He is primarily known for his attempt to discover a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, during the course of which he was the first European to discover Baffin Bay in present-day Canada. He was also responsible for exceptional surveys of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf on behalf of the East India Company.
Baffin Bay, located between Baffin Island and the west coast of Greenland, is defined by the International Hydrographic Organization as a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is sometimes considered a sea of North Atlantic Ocean. It is connected to the Atlantic via Davis Strait and the Labrador Sea. The narrower Nares Strait connects Baffin Bay with the Arctic Ocean. The bay is not navigable most of the year because of the ice cover and high density of floating ice and icebergs in the open areas. However, a polynya of about 80,000 km2 (31,000 sq mi), known as the North Water, opens in summer on the north near Smith Sound. Most of the aquatic life of the bay is concentrated near that region.
Davis Strait is a northern arm of the Atlantic Ocean that lies north of the Labrador Sea. It lies between mid-western Greenland and Baffin Island in Nunavut, Canada. To the north is Baffin Bay. The strait was named for the English explorer John Davis (1550–1605), who explored the area while seeking a Northwest Passage. By the 1650s it was used for whale hunting.
Smith Sound is an uninhabited Arctic sea passage between Greenland and Canada's northernmost island, Ellesmere Island. It links Baffin Bay with Kane Basin and forms part of the Nares Strait.
The Cumberland Sound belugas are a distinct population of belugas residing in the Cumberland Sound region of the Labrador Sea off the coast of Nunavut, Canada Individuals of this population reside in the sound year-round, congregating in its extreme north exclusively at Clearwater Fjord during the summer for calving. The Cumberland Sound beluga population is considered fairly isolated and genetically distinct from other beluga populations, with a notable number of haplotypes and microsatellite loci not found elsewhere.
Wolstenholme Fjord is a fjord in Avannaata municipality, Northwest Greenland. It is located to the north of the Thule Air Base and adjacent to the abandoned Inuit settlement of Narsaarsuk.
Nuussuaq, formerly Kraulshavn, is a settlement in Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland. It is the only mainland settlement in the Upernavik Archipelago, located near the western tip of the Nuussuaq Peninsula, on the northern coast of Sugar Loaf Bay, an indentation of Baffin Bay.
Sir Edward Augustus Inglefield was a Royal Navy officer who led one of the searches for the missing Arctic explorer John Franklin during the 1850s. In doing so, his expedition charted previously unexplored areas along the northern Canadian coastline, including Baffin Bay, Smith Sound and Lancaster Sound.
Qeqertarsuaq or Herbert Island is an island in Baffin Bay near Qaanaaq in the Avannaata municipality, NW Greenland. The island has an area of 223 km2.
Kiatak or Northumberland Island, also known as Kujata, is an island off the coast of northern Greenland.
Upernavik Archipelago is a vast coastal archipelago in the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland, off the shores of northeastern Baffin Bay. The archipelago extends from the northwestern coast of Sigguup Nunaa peninsula in the south at approximately 71°50′N56°00′W to the southern end of Melville Bay in the north at approximately 74°50′N57°30′W.
Sugar Loaf Bay is a bay in the Upernavik Archipelago in the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland. It is an indentation of northeastern Baffin Bay. The name of the bay derives from the name of an island of the same name in the bay, Sugar Loaf Island.
Cape Cleveland, also known as Innartalik, is a headland in Northwest Greenland, Avannaata municipality.
Hakluyt Island is an island in Baffin Bay, in Avannaata municipality, off northwest Greenland.
Inglefield Gulf or Inglefield Fjord is a fjord in northwestern Greenland. To the west, the fjord opens into the Baffin Bay. Administratively it belongs to the Avannaata municipality.
MacCormick Fjord is a fjord in northern Greenland. To the southwest, the fjord opens into the Murchison Sound of the Baffin Bay.
Bowdoin Fjord is a fjord in northern Greenland. To the south the fjord opens into the Inglefield Gulf of the Baffin Bay.
Olrik Fjord is a fjord in the Avannaata municipality, Northwestern Greenland. To the east the fjord opens into the Hvalsund, at the end of the Inglefield Gulf of the Baffin Bay.
Siorapaluup Kangerlua, also known as Robertson Fjord and Robertson Bay, is a fjord in northern Greenland. To the southwest, the fjord opens into the Murchison Sound of the Baffin Bay. Administratively it belongs to the Avannaata municipality.
The Murchison Sound is a sound in the Avannaata municipality, NW Greenland. It was named after Scottish geologist Roderick Murchison.
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