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24-751: The highest point is Mount Odin at 2,147 m (7,044 ft) while Mount Asgard ( Sivanitirutinguak ) at 2,015 m (6,611 ft) is perhaps the best known. The highest point in the northern Baffin Mountains is Qiajivik Mountain at 1,963 m (6,440 ft). There are no trees in the Baffin Mountains because they are north of the Arctic tree line . Rocks that compose the Baffin Mountains are primarily deeply dissected granitic rocks. They were covered with ice until about 1500 years ago, and vast parts of them are still ice-covered. Geologically ,

48-657: A more precise description. The fossil records provide strong evidence that the Axel Heiberg forest was a high-latitude wetland forest. A holotype of the ammonite Otoceras gracile was found in the Griesbachian (Early Triassic ) deposits of this island. Axel Heiberg Island has been inhabited in the past by the Inuit , but was uninhabited by the time it was named by Otto Sverdrup , who explored it in 1900–01. He named it after Axel Heiberg , financial director of

72-867: Is a mountain in Qikiqtaaluk , Nunavut , Canada . It is located in Auyuittuq National Park along the Akshayuk Pass , 46 km (29 mi) north of Pangnirtung and south of Mount Asgard . Mount Odin is the highest mountain on Baffin Island . Mount Odin is the highest mountain within the Baffin Mountains as well as the fifth-highest in the Arctic Cordillera . It has a topographic prominence of 2,147 m (7,044 ft), greater than any other mountain within

96-574: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Axel Heiberg Island Axel Heiberg Island ( Inuktitut : ᐅᒥᖕᒪᑦ ᓄᓈᑦ , Umingmat Nunaat ) is an uninhabited island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region , Nunavut , Canada. Located in the Arctic Ocean , it is the 32nd largest island in the world and Canada's seventh largest island . According to Statistics Canada , it has an area of 43,178 km (16,671 sq mi). It

120-619: Is just 63 m higher than Mount Odin. The mountain is named after Odin , the chief of the gods in Norse mythology and Norse paganism . Mount Odin has an impressive rocky south face that drops into the Weasel River . To the north, the area is glaciated. This article related to a mountain, mountain range, or peak in Canada is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Qikiqtaaluk Region , Nunavut location article

144-450: Is looking at how best to protect the fossil forest, possibly by setting up a territorial park to be called Napaaqtulik, "where there are trees". Interesting animal fossils have been discovered on the island, including a remarkably preserved specimen of an ancient Aurorachelys turtle and, identified in 2016, the humerus of a Tingmiatornis bird. White Glacier is a valley glacier occupying 38.7 km (14.9 sq mi) in

168-606: Is named after Axel Heiberg . One of the larger members of the Arctic Archipelago , it is also a member of the Sverdrup Islands and Queen Elizabeth Islands . It is known for its unusual fossil forests , which date from the Eocene period. Owing to the lack of mineralization in many of the forest specimens, the traditional characterization of "fossilisation" fails for these forests and "mummification" may be

192-429: Is the coldest and saltiest of all Arctic springs described to date. It is characterized by a perennial hypersaline (24%) discharge at subzero temperatures (~−5 °C (23 °F)) flowing to the surface through a hollow, 2 m (6 ft 7 in) high cone-shaped salt tufa structure. Continuous gas emissions from the spring indicate an underlying thermogenic methane source. Based on these properties, this spring

216-510: The McGill Arctic Research Station ( 79°26′N 90°46′W  /  79.433°N 90.767°W  / 79.433; -90.767  ( McGill Arctic Research Station ) ), constructed 8 km (5.0 mi) inland from Expedition Fjord in 1960. It comprises a small research hut, a cookhouse, and two temporary structures comfortably accommodating 8–12 persons. The station was initially heavily utilized during

240-581: The Baffin Mountains and on Baffin Island, making Odin the third-highest mountain in Nunavut by topographic prominence. Comparing absolute peaks, Mount Odin is the fifth-highest in Nunavut. The higher points in Nunavut are: Barbeau Peak on Ellesmere Island (the highest point in Nunavut at 2,616 m), two unnamed peaks on Ellesmere Island, (one at 2,347 m located at 78° 48' N, 79° 34' W and one at 2,201 m located at 80° 17' N, 75° 05' W) and Outlook Peak on Axel Heiberg Island , which at 2210 m

264-604: The Baffin Mountains form the eastern edge of the Canadian Shield , which covers much of Canada's landscape. The ranges of the Baffin Mountains are separated by deep fjords and glaciated valleys with many spectacular glacial and ice-capped mountains. The snowfall in the Baffin Mountains is light, much less than in places like the Saint Elias Mountains in southeastern Alaska and southwestern Yukon which are plastered with snow. The largest ice cap in

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288-484: The Baffin Mountains is the Penny Ice Cap , which has an area of 6,000 km (2,300 sq mi). During the mid-1990s, Canadian researchers studied the glacier's patterns of freezing and thawing over centuries by drilling ice core samples. The dominant vegetation in the Baffin Mountains is a discontinuous cover of mosses , lichens and cold-hardy vascular plants such as sedge and cottongrass . One of

312-505: The Eocene epoch, a forest of tall trees flourished on Axel Heiberg Island. The trees reached up to 35 m (115 ft) in height; some may have grown for 500 to 1,000 years. The polar climate was warm at the time, but the winters were still continuously dark for three months. As the trees fell, the fine sediment in which the forest grew protected the plants. Instead of turning into petrified "stone" fossils, they were ultimately mummified by

336-586: The Expedition Fiord area of Axel Heiberg Island ( 79°30′N 090°50′W  /  79.500°N 90.833°W  / 79.500; -90.833  ( White Glacier ) ). It extends in elevation from 56 to 1,782 m (184 to 5,846 ft) above sea level, a range which, as noted by Dyurgerov (2002), is exceeded only by Devon Ice Cap in the world list of glaciers with measured mass balance. Ice thickness reaches or exceeds 400 m (1,300 ft). Its maximum extension in recent history, marking

360-684: The Norwegian Ringnes brewery which sponsored the expedition. Other explorers visited the island during the early 20th century, during which time it was claimed by Norway until 1930. It is now part of Nunavut Territory, Canada. It was not until the late 1940s that the island was aerially photographed by the United States Army Air Forces ' Operation Polaris. In 1955, two geologists of the Geological Survey of Canada , N.J. McMillan and Souther, traversed

384-986: The cold, dry Arctic climate and only recently exposed to erosion. Scientists from the Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg provided a few grams of Metasequoia conifer wood from the site to genetics researchers at the National University of Altai, who compared the DNA sequences of the ancient wood with DNA of modern woody plants and found them to be almost identical. Komarov Institute scientists also discovered double-strand DNA molecules in Metasequoia fossil leaves from Axel Heiberg Island. As late as 1999, preserving this unique site

408-474: The early 1960s, with a population of 20. The McGill Arctic Research Station is active from March to August, and research is currently focused on polar geomorphology, geology, glaciology, permafrost , climate change, and polar microbiology. Over the last 10–15 years, it has served as a significant Mars analogue for astrobiology investigations studying life and habitability of polar cryoenvironments and field-testing planetary exploration instrumentation platforms. In

432-438: The first mountaineering expeditions in the Baffin Mountains was in 1934 by J.M Wordie, in which two peaks called Pioneer Peak and Longstaff Tower were climbed. The Auyuittuq National Park was established in 1976. It features much Arctic wilderness, such as fjords, glaciers and ice fields . In Inuktitut – the language of Nunavut's Aboriginal people, Inuit – Auyuittuq means "the land that never melts". Although Auyuittuq

456-520: The glacier's advance in response to the cooling of the Little Ice Age , was reached not earlier than the late 18th century and probably at the beginning of the 20th century. There is evidence that the retreat of the terminus, previously at about 5 m (16 ft) per year, is decelerating (Cogley et al. 1996a; Cogley and Adams 2000). White Glacier has been the subject of many papers in the glaciological literature since 1960, e.g. Müller (1962)

480-411: The interior as part of Operation Franklin. McMillan's observations of Bunde Glacier in northwest Axel Heiberg Island are the earliest glaciological observations on the ground to have found their way into a scientific publication. In 1959, scientists from McGill University explored Expedition Fiord (previously Sør Fjord or South Fiord) in central Axel Heiberg Island. This resulted in the establishment of

504-510: The summer of 1972, a British Army Mountaineering Association expedition resulted in the naming of Scaife Glacier following the accidental death of Sergeant Kenneth Scaife. During the summer of 1986, a Canadian expedition headed by Dr. James Basinger set out to investigate a very unusual fossil forest on Axel Heiberg. The findings of these and subsequent expeditions have since been popularly reported in Canada. Over 40 million years ago, during

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528-418: Was a concern, as the fossil wood was easily damaged and eroded once exposed. There were concerns that Arctic cruise ship tourists were taking wood and that the site was being disturbed by Canadian military helicopters from nearby bases and even by scientists in their studies. There were calls for more protection for the area. It has no official status, partly because land claims had to be settled. But now Nunavut

552-624: Was established in 1976 as a national park reserve, it was upgraded to a full national park in 2000. There were Inuit settlements in the Baffin Mountains before European contact. The first European contact is believed to have been by Norse explorers in the 11th century, but the first recorded sighting of Baffin Island was made by Martin Frobisher during his search for the Northwest Passage in 1576. Mount Odin Mount Odin

576-437: Was the source of a now-classical diagram elaborating and illustrating the concept of " glacier facies ". The island is uninhabited except for the seasonal McGill Arctic Research Station operated by McGill University . The Lost Hammer Spring , located in the central west region of the island ( 79°07′N 090°21′W  /  79.117°N 90.350°W  / 79.117; -90.350  ( Lost Hammer Spring ) )

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