Murchison Promontory ( 71°58′N94°57′W / 71.967°N 94.950°W ), a cape (promontory) in the northern Canadian Arctic, [1] is the northernmost mainland point of the Americas and of Canada. [2] [3] Located 1,087 nautical miles (1,251 mi; 2,013 km) from the North Pole, it is 64 km (40 mi) farther north than Point Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost point of all U.S. territory. [4]
Murchison Promontory extends along the northern edge of the Boothia Peninsula, at right angles to the Bellot Strait, which separates it from Somerset Island. Situated in the Kitikmeot Region (Inuktitut: Qitirmiut) of Nunavut, its northernmost point, Zenith Point, is located at 72°00′N94°39′W / 72.000°N 94.650°W . [5] [6] The nearest community is Taloyoak, approximately 250 km (160 mi) to the south.
The area was first explored in April 1852 by the Canadian Captain William Kennedy and the French explorer Joseph René Bellot while searching for traces of John Franklin's lost Arctic expedition. [7] [8] The strait was then named after Bellot, who drowned the following year after falling through the ice in the Wellington Channel.
Irish-born Francis Leopold McClintock also wintered in the area with his ship Fox in the winter of 1858–1859 in his search for the Franklin expedition. [9] In July 1859, McClintock named the promontory, which his expedition determined to be the northernmost point of the mainland, after Royal Geographical Society president Roderick Murchison. Murchison was a prominent supporter of Jane Franklin in her efforts towards a continued search for her husband, which included the sponsorship of McClintock's expedition. [10]
In 1937 Scot E. J. "Scotty" Gall passed the promontory on his ship Aklavik on the first crossing of the Bellot Strait, [11] travelling from the western shore to the eastern for the Hudson's Bay Company.
Victoria Island 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 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 [43,010 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 [87,200 sq mi]). 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 among two settlements, the larger of which is in Nunavut and the other of which is in the Northwest Territories.
The Arctic Archipelago, also known as the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, is an archipelago lying to the north of the Canadian continental mainland, excluding Greenland and Iceland.
Melville Island is an uninhabited member of the Queen Elizabeth Islands of the Arctic Archipelago. With an area of 42,149 km2 (16,274 sq mi), It is the 33rd largest island in the world and Canada's eighth largest island.
Prince of Wales Island is an Arctic island in Nunavut, Canada. One of the larger members of the Arctic Archipelago, it lies between Victoria Island and Somerset Island and is south of the Queen Elizabeth Islands.
Point Barrow or Nuvuk is a headland on the Arctic coast in the U.S. state of Alaska, 9 miles (14 km) northeast of Utqiagvik. It is the northernmost point of all the territory of the United States, at 71°23′20″N156°28′45″W, 1,122 nautical miles south of the North Pole.
This is a list of the extreme points of The Americas, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location on the continent. The continent's southernmost point is often said to be Cape Horn, which is the southernmost point of the Chilean islands. The Americas cross 134° of longitude east to west and 124° of latitude north to south.
Boothia Peninsula is a large peninsula in Nunavut's northern Canadian Arctic, south of Somerset Island. The northern part, Murchison Promontory, is the northernmost point of mainland Canada.
Eglinton Island an uninhabited island of the Arctic Archipelago in the Northwest Territories, Canada. Eglinton is one of the Queen Elizabeth Islands. Located at 75°48'N 118°30'W, it measures 1,541 km2 (595 sq mi) in size, 73 kilometres (45 mi) long and 44 km (27 mi) wide in measurements. It lies on the north side of the M'Clure Strait, just south of the much larger Prince Patrick Island and is uninhabited with no known human activity.
Sir Francis Leopold McClintock was an Irish explorer in the British Royal Navy, known for his discoveries in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. He confirmed explorer John Rae's controversial report gathered from Inuit sources on the fate of Franklin's lost expedition, the ill-fated Royal Navy undertaking commanded by Sir John Franklin in 1845 attempting to be the first to traverse the Northwest Passage.
Prince Regent Inlet is a body of water in Nunavut, Canada between the west end of Baffin Island and Somerset Island on the west. It opens north into Lancaster Sound and to the south merges into the Gulf of Boothia. The Arctic inlet's northern portion is approximately 40 mi (64 km) wide; the southern portion is approximately 65 mi (105 km) wide. It is deep throughout and there are no islands within the inlet.
Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier was an Irish officer of the Royal Navy and polar explorer who participated in six expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. In May 1845, he was second-in-command to Sir John Franklin and captain of HMS Terror during the Franklin expedition to discover the Northwest Passage, which ended with the loss of all 129 crewmen in mysterious circumstances.
Bellot Strait is a strait in Nunavut that separates Somerset Island to its north from the Murchison Promontory of Boothia Peninsula to its south, which is the northernmost part of the mainland of the Americas. The two-kilometre-wide (1.2 mi) and 25-kilometre-long (16 mi) strait connects the Gulf of Boothia, Prince Regent Inlet, and Brentford Bay to its east with Peel Sound and Franklin Strait to its west.
Franklin's lost expedition was a failed British voyage of Arctic exploration led by Captain Sir John Franklin that departed England, United Kingdom in 1845 aboard two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, and was assigned to traverse the last unnavigated sections of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic and to record magnetic data to help determine whether a better understanding could aid navigation. The expedition met with disaster after both ships and their crews, a total of 129 officers and men, became icebound in Victoria Strait near King William Island in what is today the Canadian territory of Nunavut. After being icebound for more than a year Erebus and Terror were abandoned in April 1848, by which point two dozen men, including Franklin, had died. The survivors, now led by Franklin's second-in-command, Francis Crozier, and Erebus's captain, James Fitzjames, set out for the Canadian mainland and disappeared, presumably having perished.
Lowther Island lies within the Arctic Archipelago in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of northern Canada's territory of Nunavut. It is one of the mid-channel islands in the western sector of Barrow Strait. Bathurst Island and Cornwallis Island are to the north, while Prince of Wales Island is to the south. The island is clustered within a group of uninhabited islands. It is 15.5 mi (24.9 km) northeast of Young Island, separated by the Kettle Passage, a shipping route, and 13 mi (21 km) southeast of Garrett Island, separated by Hayes Channel.
The Tasmania Islands are a group of uninhabited islands located in the Kitikmeot Region of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. Part of the Arctic Archipelago, the island's are located in Franklin Strait, just west of Boothia Peninsula, which is part of the mainland.
The Fox was an 1854 steam yacht commanded by Leopold McClintock on a privately funded 1857–1859 expedition to the North American Arctic Archipelago to search for clues about the fate of Franklin's lost expedition.
The McClure Arctic expedition, one of many attempts to find the missing Franklin expedition, was significant for being the first to successfully discover and transit the Northwest Passage, which it accomplished by both boat and sledging.
The McClintock Arctic expedition of 1857 was a British effort to locate the last remains of Franklin's lost expedition. Led by Francis Leopold McClintock, RN aboard the steam yacht Fox, the expedition spent two years in the region and ultimately returned with the only written message recovered from the doomed expedition. McClintock and crew were awarded the Arctic medal in recognition of their achievements.
Aklavik was a small cargo vessel the Hudson's Bay Company used to carry supplies to, and furs from, its outposts in the high Arctic. She was active in the first half of the 20th century.
The Judge Daly Promontory is a peninsula located on the eastern coast of Ellesmere Island, a part of the Qikiqtaaluk Region of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. It stretches from the southwest northeastward into Nares Strait. Lady Franklin Bay is to the north, Archer Fiord to the west, and Cape Baird is its northernmost point.
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