The Davis Strait is a southern arm of the Arctic 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 .
16-662: The Hazen Strait ( 77°00′N 110°30′W / 77.000°N 110.500°W / 77.000; -110.500 ( Hazen Strait ) ) is a natural waterway through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago . It separates Mackenzie King Island in the Northwest Territories (to the north) from Vesey Hamilton Island and Melville Island 's Sabine Peninsula in Nunavut (to the south). This Qikiqtaaluk Region , Nunavut location article
32-572: A decades-long dispute. The archipelago extends some 2,400 km (1,500 mi) longitudinally and 1,900 km (1,200 mi) from the mainland to Cape Columbia , the northernmost point on Ellesmere Island. It is bounded on the west by the Beaufort Sea ; on the northwest by the Arctic Ocean ; on the east by Greenland, Baffin Bay and Davis Strait ; and on the south by Hudson Bay and
48-428: A total area of 1,400,000 km (540,000 sq mi). The islands of the archipelago over 10,000 km (3,900 sq mi), in order of descending area, are: NT = Northwest Territories , NU = Nunavut After Greenland, the archipelago is the world's largest high-Arctic land area. The climate of the islands is Arctic , and the terrain consists of tundra except in mountainous regions. Most of
64-530: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Canadian Northwest Territories location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Canadian Arctic Archipelago The Arctic Archipelago , also known as the Canadian Arctic Archipelago , is an archipelago lying to the north of the Canadian continental mainland, excluding Greenland (an autonomous territory of Denmark ) and Iceland (an independent country). Situated in
80-533: Is underlain by complex geological features of buried grabens (basins) and ridges , formed by strike-slip faulting of the Ungava Fault Zone during Paleogene times about 45 million to 62 million years ago. The strike-slip faulting transferred plate-tectonic motions in the Labrador Sea to Baffin Bay. It is the world's broadest strait. With a water depth of between one and two thousand meters
96-537: The Northwest Passage as Canadian Internal Waters ; however, most maritime countries view these as international waters . Disagreement over the passages' status has raised Canadian concerns about environmental enforcement, national security, and general sovereignty. East of Ellesmere Island , in the Nares Strait , lies Hans Island , ownership of which is now shared between Canada and Denmark, after
112-717: The rise in sea levels by 2100. Around 2500 BCE, the first humans, the Paleo-Eskimos , arrived in the archipelago from the Canadian mainland. Between 1000 and 1500 CE, they were replaced by the Thule people , who are the ancestors of today's Inuit . British claims on the islands, the British Arctic Territories , were based on the explorations in the 1570s by Martin Frobisher . Canadian sovereignty
128-514: The strait is substantially shallower than the Labrador Sea to the south. The strait is famous for its fierce tides that can range from 30 to 60 ft (9.1 to 18.3 m), which discouraged many earlier explorers. US Geological Survey has estimated that at least 13% of the world's undiscovered oil deposits and 30% of the world's undiscovered gas pockets are located in the Arctic, with
144-688: The Arctic Archipelago, and 35.38 per cent of the population of Nunavut. Download coordinates as: Davis Strait The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Davis Strait as follows: On the North. The Southern limit of Baffin Bay [The parallel of 70° North between Greenland and Baffin Land ]. On the East. The Southwest coast of Greenland. On
160-694: The Canadian mainland. The various islands are separated from each other and the continental mainland by a series of waterways collectively known as the Northwest Passage . Two large peninsulas, Boothia and Melville , extend northward from the mainland. The northernmost cluster of islands, including Ellesmere Island , is known as the Queen Elizabeth Islands and was formerly the Parry Islands. The archipelago consists of 36,563 islands, of which 94 are classified as major islands, being larger than 130 km (50 sq mi), and cover
176-734: The South. The parallel of 60° North between Greenland and Labrador . On the West. The Eastern limit of the Northwestern Passages South of 70° North [the East coast of Baffin Island to East Bluff, its Southeastern extremity] and of Hudson Strait [A line from East Bluff, the Southeast extreme of Baffin Island ( 61°53′N 65°57′W / 61.883°N 65.950°W / 61.883; -65.950 ), to Point Meridian,
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#1732779537719192-455: The Western extreme of Lower Savage Islands , along the coast to its Southwestern extreme and thence a line across to the Western extreme of Resolution Island , through its Southwestern shore to Hatton Headland, its Southern point, thence a line to Cape Chidley , Labrador ( 60°24′N 64°26′W / 60.400°N 64.433°W / 60.400; -64.433 )]. The Davis Strait
208-471: The islands are uninhabited; human settlement is extremely thin and scattered, being mainly coastal Inuit settlements on the southern islands. Of the more than 36,000 islands, only 11 are populated. Baffin Island, the largest, also has the largest population of 13,309. The population accounts for 67.37 per cent of the 19,355 people in the Qikiqtaaluk Region , 56.51 per cent of the population of
224-431: The northern extremity of North America and covering about 1,424,500 km (550,000 sq mi), this group of 36,563 islands, surrounded by the Arctic Ocean , comprises much of Northern Canada , predominately Nunavut and the Northwest Territories . The archipelago is showing some effects of climate change , with some computer estimates determining that melting there will contribute 3.5 cm (1.4 in) to
240-452: The seas around Greenland potentially holding large amounts of natural gas and lesser amounts of crude oil and natural gas liquids . This has led Greenland's minister and provincial council to offer a large number of off-shore concessions to potential hydrocarbon (oil and gas) extraction. The largest concessions areas are located in seas west of Greenland, primarily the Davis Strait and Baffin Bay , but with several smaller concessions in
256-412: Was originally (1870–80) only over island portions that drained into Foxe Basin , Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait . Canadian sovereignty over the islands was established by 1880 when Britain transferred them to Canada. The District of Franklin – established in 1895 – comprised almost all of the archipelago. The district was dissolved upon the creation of Nunavut in 1999. Canada claims all the waterways of
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