130-488: Nanisivik ( Inuktitut : ᓇᓂᓯᕕᒃ , lit. 'the place where people find things'; / n ə ˈ n iː s ɪ v ɪ k / ) is a now-abandoned company town which was built in 1975 to support the lead-zinc mining and mineral processing operations for the Nanisivik Mine , in production between 1976 and 2002. The townsite is located just inland from Strathcona Sound , about 20 km (12 mi) east of
260-454: A climate change feedback . The emissions from thawing permafrost will have a sufficient impact on the climate to impact global carbon budgets . It is difficult to accurately predict how much greenhouse gases the permafrost releases because of the different thaw processes are still uncertain. There is widespread agreement that the emissions will be smaller than human-caused emissions and not large enough to result in runaway warming . Instead,
390-721: A glottal stop when after a vowel (e.g., maꞌna ), or separates an n from an ng (e.g., avin'ngaq ) or an r from an rh (e.g., qar'rhuk ). In April 2012, with the completion of the Old Testament , the first complete Bible in Inuktitut, translated by native speakers, was published. Noted literature in Inuktitut has included the novels Harpoon of the Hunter by Markoosie Patsauq , and Sanaaq by Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk . The Inuktitut syllabary used in Canada
520-407: A 2022 review concluded that every 1 °C (1.8 °F) of global warming would cause 0.04 °C (0.072 °F) and 0.11 °C (0.20 °F) from abrupt thaw by the year 2100 and 2300. Around 4 °C (7.2 °F) of global warming, abrupt (around 50 years) and widespread collapse of permafrost areas could occur, resulting in an additional warming of 0.2–0.4 °C (0.36–0.72 °F). As
650-658: A climate that limits the annual construction season. Nanisivik has a tundra climate (a polar climate sub-type under the Köppen climate classification scheme) with long, cold winters and very short, chilly summers that are rarely mild. Early winter tends to be snowiest period of the year, with around 40% of all yearly snowfall falling during this short period. Inuktitut language Inuktitut ( / ɪ ˈ n ʊ k t ə t ʊ t / ih- NUUK -tə-tuut ; Inuktitut: [inuktiˈtut] , syllabics ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ ; from inuk , 'person' + -titut , 'like', 'in
780-544: A climate where the mean annual soil surface temperature is between −5 and 0 °C (23 and 32 °F). In the moist-wintered areas mentioned before, there may not even be discontinuous permafrost down to −2 °C (28 °F). Discontinuous permafrost is often further divided into extensive discontinuous permafrost, where permafrost covers between 50 and 90 percent of the landscape and is usually found in areas with mean annual temperatures between −2 and −4 °C (28 and 25 °F), and sporadic permafrost, where permafrost cover
910-531: A fifth of both the industrial and the polluted sites (1000 and 2200–4800) are expected to start thawing in the future even if the warming does not increase from its 2020 levels. Only about 3% more sites would start thawing between now and 2050 under the climate change scenario consistent with the Paris Agreement goals, RCP2.6 , but by 2100, about 1100 more industrial facilities and 3500 to 5200 contaminated sites are expected to start thawing even then. Under
1040-541: A further $ 1.32 billion. In particular, fewer than 20% of railways would be at high risk by 2100 under 1.5 °C (2.7 °F), yet this increases to 60% at 2 °C (3.6 °F), while under SSP5-8.5, this level of risk is met by mid-century. For much of the 20th century, it was believed that permafrost would "indefinitely" preserve anything buried there, and this made deep permafrost areas popular locations for hazardous waste disposal. In places like Canada's Prudhoe Bay oil field, procedures were developed documenting
1170-645: A major climate tipping point in what was known as a clathrate gun hypothesis , but are now no longer believed to play any role in projected climate change. At the Last Glacial Maximum , continuous permafrost covered a much greater area than it does today, covering all of ice-free Europe south to about Szeged (southeastern Hungary ) and the Sea of Azov (then dry land) and East Asia south to present-day Changchun and Abashiri . In North America, only an extremely narrow belt of permafrost existed south of
1300-416: A mean annual temperature of −2 °C (28.4 °F) or below. In the coldest regions, the depth of continuous permafrost can exceed 1,400 m (4,600 ft). It typically exists beneath the so-called active layer , which freezes and thaws annually, and so can support plant growth, as the roots can only take hold in the soil that's thawed. Active layer thickness is measured during its maximum extent at
1430-541: A minimum thickness of at least 2 m and a short diameter of at least 10 m. First recorded North American observations of this phenomenon were by European scientists at Canning River (Alaska) in 1919. Russian literature provides an earlier date of 1735 and 1739 during the Great North Expedition by P. Lassinius and Khariton Laptev , respectively. Russian investigators including I.A. Lopatin, B. Khegbomov, S. Taber and G. Beskow had also formulated
SECTION 10
#17327840401211560-543: A permafrost zone or region. This is because only slightly more than half of this area is defined as a continuous permafrost zone, where 90%–100% of the land is underlain by permafrost. Around 20% is instead defined as discontinuous permafrost, where the coverage is between 50% and 90%. Finally, the remaining <30% of permafrost regions consists of areas with 10%–50% coverage, which are defined as sporadic permafrost zones, and some areas that have isolated patches of permafrost covering 10% or less of their area. Most of this area
1690-645: A population density of 0.0/km (0.0/sq mi) in 2021. The ore deposit resides within dolomite from the Society Cliffs Formation covered with dolomitic shale from the Victor Bay Formation, which together form the Uluksan Group and reside on top of silty shale. The ore is believed to have formed when hot saline water bearing the metal ions of sodium, calcium, chlorine, and sulfate mixed with cooler carbonate-rich brine in
1820-469: A root morpheme to which other morphemes are suffixed. Inuktitut has hundreds of distinct suffixes, in some dialects as many as 700. However, it is highly regular, with rules that do not have exceptions like in English and other Indo-European languages , though they are sometimes very complicated. One example is the word qangatasuukkuvimmuuriaqalaaqtunga ( ᖃᖓᑕᓲᒃᑯᕕᒻᒨᕆᐊᖃᓛᖅᑐᖓ ) meaning 'I'll have to go to
1950-642: A scheme called Qaniujaaqpait or Inuktitut syllabics , based on Canadian Aboriginal syllabics . In the 1860s, missionaries imported this system of Qaniujaaqpait , which they had developed in their efforts to convert the Cree to Christianity , to the Eastern Canadian Inuit. The Netsilik Inuit in Kugaaruk and north Baffin Island adopted Qaniujaaqpait by the 1920s. In September 2019,
2080-562: A separate dialect reputedly much closer to western Inuktitut dialects, spoken in the area around Rigolet . According to news reports, in 1999 it had only three very elderly speakers. Though often thought to be a dialect of Greenlandic , Inuktun or Polar Eskimo is a recent arrival in Greenland from the Eastern Canadian Arctic, arriving perhaps as late as the 18th century. Throughout Inuit Nunaat and Inuit Nunangat
2210-482: A unified orthography called Inuktut Qaliujaaqpait, based on the Latin alphabet without diacritics, was adopted for all varieties of Inuktitut by the national organization Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami , after eight years of work. It was developed by Inuit to be used by speakers of any dialect from any region, and can be typed on electronic devices without specialized keyboard layouts. It does not replace syllabics, and people from
2340-468: A vestige of the retroflex consonants of Proto-Inuit . Inuinnaqtun has one fewer consonant, as /s/ and /ɬ/ have merged into /h/ . All dialects of Inuktitut have only three basic vowels and make a phonological distinction between short and long forms of all vowels. In Inuujingajut —Nunavut standard Roman orthography—long vowels are written as a double vowel. All voiceless stops are unaspirated, like in many other languages. The voiceless uvular stop
2470-605: A year. In 2006, the cost of adapting Inuvialuit homes to permafrost thaw was estimated at $ 208/m if they were built at pile foundations, and $ 1,000/m if they didn't. At the time, the average area of a residential building in the territory was around 100 m . Thaw-induced damage is also unlikely to be covered by home insurance , and to address this reality, territorial government currently funds Contributing Assistance for Repairs and Enhancements (CARE) and Securing Assistance for Emergencies (SAFE) programs, which provide long- and short-term forgivable loans to help homeowners adapt. It
2600-517: Is soil or underwater sediment which continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two years or more: the oldest permafrost had been continuously frozen for around 700,000 years. Whilst the shallowest permafrost has a vertical extent of below a meter (3 ft), the deepest is greater than 1,500 m (4,900 ft). Similarly, the area of individual permafrost zones may be limited to narrow mountain summits or extend across vast Arctic regions. The ground beneath glaciers and ice sheets
2730-538: Is already considered "warm" permafrost, making it particularly unstable. Qinghai–Tibet Plateau has a population of over 10 million people – double the population of permafrost regions in the Arctic – and over 1 million m of buildings are located in its permafrost area, as well as 2,631 km of power lines , and 580 km of railways. There are also 9,389 km of roads, and around 30% are already sustaining damage from permafrost thaw. Estimates suggest that under
SECTION 20
#17327840401212860-682: Is also located in high mountain regions, with the Tibetan Plateau being a prominent example. Only a minority of permafrost exists in the Southern Hemisphere , where it is consigned to mountain slopes like in the Andes of Patagonia , the Southern Alps of New Zealand, or the highest mountains of Antarctica . Permafrost contains large amounts of dead biomass that have accumulated throughout millennia without having had
2990-473: Is also possible for subsurface alpine permafrost to be covered by warmer, vegetation-supporting soil. Alpine permafrost is particularly difficult to study, and systematic research efforts did not begin until the 1970s. Consequently, there remain uncertainties about its geography. As recently as 2009, permafrost had been discovered in a new area – Africa's highest peak, Mount Kilimanjaro (4,700 m (15,400 ft) above sea level and approximately 3° south of
3120-515: Is also the name of a macrolanguage and, in that context, also includes Inuvialuktun , and thus nearly all Inuit dialects of Canada. However, Statistics Canada lists all Inuit languages in the Canadian census as Inuktut. Before contact with Europeans, Inuit learned skills by example and participation. The Inuktitut language provided them with all the vocabulary required to describe traditional practices and natural features. Up to this point, it
3250-459: Is ambiguous in state policy to what degree Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun can be thought of as separate languages. The words Inuktitut , or more correctly Inuktut ('Inuit language') are increasingly used to refer to both Inuinnaqtun and Inuktitut together, or "Inuit languages" in English. Nunavut is the home of some 24,000 Inuit, over 80% of whom speak Inuktitut. This includes some 3,500 people reported as monolinguals. The 2001 census data shows that
3380-477: Is an Inuvialuktun dialect. As of the early 2000s, Nunavut has gradually implemented early childhood, elementary, and secondary school-level immersion programs within its education system to further preserve and promote the Inuktitut language. As of 2012 , "Pirurvik, Iqaluit 's Inuktitut language training centre, has a new goal: to train instructors from Nunavut communities to teach Inuktitut in different ways and in their own dialects when they return home." Quebec
3510-467: Is associated with Inukjuak , Quebec, and there is an Itivimuit River near the town. The Nunatsiavut dialect ( Inuttitut ᓄᓇᑦᓯᐊᕗᒻᒥᐅᑐᑦ or, often in government documents, Labradorimiutut ) was once spoken across northern Labrador . It has a distinct writing system, developed in Greenland in the 1760s by German missionaries from the Moravian Church . This separate writing tradition,
3640-419: Is associated with a wide range of issues, and International Permafrost Association (IPA) exists to help address them. It convenes International Permafrost Conferences and maintains Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost , which undertakes special projects such as preparing databases, maps, bibliographies, and glossaries, and coordinates international field programmes and networks. As recent warming deepens
3770-650: Is based on the Cree syllabary devised by the missionary James Evans . The present form of the syllabary for Canadian Inuktitut was adopted by the Inuit Cultural Institute in Canada in the 1970s. Inuit in Alaska, Inuvialuit , Inuinnaqtun speakers, and Inuit in Greenland and Labrador use Latin alphabets. Though conventionally called a syllabary , the writing system has been classified by some observers as an abugida , since syllables starting with
3900-444: Is because carbon can be released through either aerobic or anaerobic respiration , which results in carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) or methane (CH 4 ) emissions, respectively. While methane lasts less than 12 years in the atmosphere, its global warming potential is around 80 times larger than that of CO 2 over a 20-year period and about 28 times larger over a 100-year period. While only a small fraction of permafrost carbon will enter
4030-429: Is decreasing as well; as of 2019, ~97% of permafrost under Arctic ice shelves is becoming warmer and thinner. Based on high agreement across model projections, fundamental process understanding, and paleoclimate evidence, it is virtually certain that permafrost extent and volume will continue to shrink as the global climate warms, with the extent of the losses determined by the magnitude of warming. Permafrost thaw
Nanisivik - Misplaced Pages Continue
4160-507: Is difficult because the heat of the building (or pipeline ) can spread to the soil, thawing it. As ice content turns to water, the ground's ability to provide structural support is weakened, until the building is destabilized. For instance, during the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway , a steam engine factory complex built in 1901 began to crumble within a month of operations for these reasons. Additionally, there
4290-620: Is expected that cumulative greenhouse gas emissions from permafrost thaw will be smaller than the cumulative anthropogenic emissions, yet still substantial on a global scale, with some experts comparing them to emissions caused by deforestation . The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report estimates that carbon dioxide and methane released from permafrost could amount to the equivalent of 14–175 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per 1 °C (1.8 °F) of warming. For comparison, by 2019, annual anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide alone stood around 40 billion tonnes. A major review published in
4420-420: Is expected to be lost "over decades and centuries". The exact amount of carbon that will be released due to warming in a given permafrost area depends on depth of thaw, carbon content within the thawed soil, physical changes to the environment, and microbial and vegetation activity in the soil. Notably, estimates of carbon release alone do not fully represent the impact of permafrost thaw on climate change. This
4550-435: Is expected to thaw, affecting all their inhabitants (currently 3.3 million people). Consequently, a wide range of infrastructure in permafrost areas is threatened by the thaw. By 2050, it's estimated that nearly 70% of global infrastructure located in the permafrost areas would be at high risk of permafrost thaw, including 30–50% of "critical" infrastructure. The associated costs could reach tens of billions of dollars by
4680-494: Is found in Siberia, northern Canada, Alaska and Greenland. Beneath the active layer annual temperature swings of permafrost become smaller with depth. The greatest depth of permafrost occurs right before the point where geothermal heat maintains a temperature above freezing. Above that bottom limit there may be permafrost with a consistent annual temperature—"isothermal permafrost". Permafrost typically forms in any climate where
4810-517: Is generated by radioactive decay of unstable isotopes and flows to the surface by conduction at a rate of ~47 terawatts (TW). Away from tectonic plate boundaries, this is equivalent to an average heat flow of 25–30 °C/km (124–139 °F/mi) near the surface. When the ice content of a permafrost exceeds 250 percent (ice to dry soil by mass) it is classified as massive ice. Massive ice bodies can range in composition, in every conceivable gradation from icy mud to pure ice. Massive icy beds have
4940-533: Is home to roughly 15,800 Inuit, nearly all of whom live in Nunavik . According to the 2021 census, 80.9% of Quebec Inuit speak Inuktitut. The Nunavik dialect ( Nunavimmiutitut , ᓄᓇᕕᒻᒥᐅᑎᑐᑦ ) is relatively close to the South Baffin dialect, but not identical. Because of the political and physical boundary between Nunavik and Nunavut, Nunavik has separate government and educational institutions from those in
5070-465: Is in 500 m-thick (1,600 ft) permafrost , 700 km (430 mi) north of the Arctic Circle and operated year-round through accumulating ore during the winter and shipping in the summer (July–November). Annual production totalled 125,000 tons of ore, which was sold to European smelters via Belgium. Conwest Exploration Company Ltd. eventually acquired the mine. Since the closure of
5200-561: Is less than 50 percent of the landscape and typically occurs at mean annual temperatures between 0 and −2 °C (32 and 28 °F). In soil science, the sporadic permafrost zone is abbreviated SPZ and the extensive discontinuous permafrost zone DPZ . Exceptions occur in un-glaciated Siberia and Alaska where the present depth of permafrost is a relic of climatic conditions during glacial ages where winters were up to 11 °C (20 °F) colder than those of today. At mean annual soil surface temperatures below −5 °C (23 °F)
5330-467: Is no groundwater available in an area underlain with permafrost. Any substantial settlement or installation needs to make some alternative arrangement to obtain water. A common solution is placing foundations on wood piles , a technique pioneered by Soviet engineer Mikhail Kim in Norilsk. However, warming-induced change of friction on the piles can still cause movement through creep , even as
Nanisivik - Misplaced Pages Continue
5460-518: Is not usually defined as permafrost, so on land, permafrost is generally located beneath a so-called active layer of soil which freezes and thaws depending on the season. Around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface is underlain by permafrost, covering a total area of around 18 million km (6.9 million sq mi). This includes large areas of Alaska , Canada , Greenland , and Siberia . It
5590-454: Is possible that in the future, mandatory relocation would instead take place as the cheaper option. However, it would effectively tear the local Inuit away from their ancestral homelands. Right now, their average personal income is only half that of the median NWT resident, meaning that adaptation costs are already disproportionate for them. By 2022, up to 80% of buildings in some Northern Russia cities had already experienced damage. By 2050,
5720-718: Is recognized as an official language in Nunavut alongside Inuinnaqtun and both languages are known collectively as Inuktut . Further, it is recognized as one of eight official native tongues in the Northwest Territories. It also has legal recognition in Nunavik —a part of Quebec—thanks in part to the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement , and is recognized in the Charter of the French Language as
5850-526: Is related to the tundra. Alpine permafrost also occurred in the Drakensberg during glacial maxima above about 3,000 metres (9,840 ft). Permafrost extends to a base depth where geothermal heat from the Earth and the mean annual temperature at the surface achieve an equilibrium temperature of 0 °C (32 °F). This base depth of permafrost can vary wildly – it is less than a meter (3 ft) in
5980-761: Is secured in the Northwest Territories Official Language Act . With the split of the territory into the NWT and Nunavut in 1999, both territories kept the Language Act. The autonomous area Nunatsiavut in Labrador made Inuktitut the government language when it was formed in 2005. In Nunavik, the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement recognizes Inuktitut in the education system. Nunavut's basic law lists four official languages: English, French, Inuktitut, and Inuinnaqtun . It
6110-595: Is subdivided into intrusive, injection and segregational ice. The latter is the dominant type, formed after crystallizational differentiation in wet sediments , which occurs when water migrates to the freezing front under the influence of van der Waals forces . This is a slow process, which primarily occurs in silts with salinity less than 20% of seawater : silt sediments with higher salinity and clay sediments instead have water movement prior to ice formation dominated by rheological processes. Consequently, it takes between 1 and 1000 years to form intrasedimental ice in
6240-433: Is the ongoing "greening" of the Arctic. As climate change warms the air and the soil, the region becomes more hospitable to plants, including larger shrubs and trees which could not survive there before. Thus, the Arctic is losing more and more of its tundra biomes, yet it gains more plants, which proceed to absorb more carbon. Some of the emissions caused by permafrost thaw will be offset by this increased plant growth, but
6370-481: Is unknown. Notable sites with known ancient ice deposits include Yenisei River valley in Siberia , Russia as well as Banks and Bylot Island in Canada's Nunavut and Northwest Territories . Some of the buried ice sheet remnants are known to host thermokarst lakes . Intrasedimental or constitutional ice has been widely observed and studied across Canada. It forms when subterranean waters freeze in place, and
6500-546: Is usually written as q, but sometimes written as r. The voiceless lateral fricative is romanized as ɬ, but is often written as &, or simply as l. /ŋ/ is spelt as ng, and geminated /ŋ/ is spelt as nng. Inuktitut, like other Eskaleut languages , has a very rich morphological system, in which a succession of different morphemes are added to root words to indicate things that, in languages like English, would require several words to express. (See also: Agglutinative language and Polysynthetic language .) All words begin with
6630-858: The Inuktut is used to refer to Inuktitut and all other dialects. It is used by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami , the Inuit Circumpolar Council , and the Government of Nunavut throughout Inuit Nunaat and Inuit Nunangat . Eastern dialects of Inuktitut have fifteen consonants and three vowels (which can be long or short). Consonants are arranged with six places of articulation : bilabial , labiodental , alveolar , palatal , velar and uvular ; and three manners of articulation : voiceless stops , voiced continuants and nasals , as well as two additional sounds—voiceless fricatives . Natsilingmiutut has an additional consonant /ɟ/ ,
SECTION 50
#17327840401216760-467: The Mongolian Plateau are the only areas where the average active layer is deeper than 600 centimetres (20 ft), with the record of 10 metres (33 ft). The border between active layer and permafrost itself is sometimes called permafrost table. Around 15% of Northern Hemisphere land that is not completely covered by ice is directly underlain by permafrost; 22% is defined as part of
6890-719: The Northern and Southern Hemisphere are cold enough to support perennially frozen ground: some of the best-known examples include the Canadian Rockies , the European Alps , Himalaya and the Tien Shan . In general, it has been found that extensive alpine permafrost requires mean annual air temperature of −3 °C (27 °F), though this can vary depending on local topography , and some mountain areas are known to support permafrost at −1 °C (30 °F). It
7020-466: The Pleistocene . Base depth is affected by the underlying geology, and particularly by thermal conductivity , which is lower for permafrost in soil than in bedrock . Lower conductivity leaves permafrost less affected by the geothermal gradient , which is the rate of increasing temperature with respect to increasing depth in the Earth's interior. It occurs as the Earth's internal thermal energy
7150-509: The continental shelves of the polar regions. These areas formed during the last Ice Age , when a larger portion of Earth's water was bound up in ice sheets on land and when sea levels were low. As the ice sheets melted to again become seawater during the Holocene glacial retreat , coastal permafrost became submerged shelves under relatively warm and salty boundary conditions, compared to surface permafrost. Since then, these conditions led to
7280-403: The equator ). In 2014, a collection of regional estimates of alpine permafrost extent had established a global extent of 3,560,000 km (1,370,000 sq mi). Yet, by 2014, alpine permafrost in the Andes has not been fully mapped, although its extent has been modeled to assess the amount of water bound up in these areas. Subsea permafrost occurs beneath the seabed and exists in
7410-408: The ice sheet at about the latitude of New Jersey through southern Iowa and northern Missouri , but permafrost was more extensive in the drier western regions where it extended to the southern border of Idaho and Oregon . In the Southern Hemisphere , there is some evidence for former permafrost from this period in central Otago and Argentine Patagonia , but was probably discontinuous, and
7540-586: The pressure melting point throughout, may have liquid water at the interface with the ground and are therefore free of underlying permafrost. "Fossil" cold anomalies in the geothermal gradient in areas where deep permafrost developed during the Pleistocene persist down to several hundred metres. This is evident from temperature measurements in boreholes in North America and Europe. The below-ground temperature varies less from season to season than
7670-539: The southern hemisphere , most of the equivalent line would fall within the Southern Ocean if there were land there. Most of the Antarctic continent is overlain by glaciers, under which much of the terrain is subject to basal melting . The exposed land of Antarctica is substantially underlain with permafrost, some of which is subject to warming and thawing along the coastline. A range of elevations in both
7800-458: The "appropriate" way to inject waste beneath the permafrost. This means that as of 2023, there are ~4500 industrial facilities in the Arctic permafrost areas which either actively process or store hazardous chemicals. Additionally, there are between 13,000 and 20,000 sites which have been heavily contaminated, 70% of them in Russia, and their pollution is currently trapped in the permafrost. About
7930-471: The 1760s that was based on the Latin script. (This alphabet is distinguished by its inclusion of the letter kra , ĸ.) They later travelled to Labrador in the 1800s, bringing the Inuktitut alphabet with them. The Alaskan Yupik and Inupiat (who additionally developed their own syllabary ) and the Siberian Yupik also adopted Latin alphabets. Most Inuktitut in Nunavut and Nunavik is written using
SECTION 60
#17327840401218060-415: The 1990s. Between 2000 and 2018, the average active layer thickness had increased from ~127 centimetres (4.17 ft) to ~145 centimetres (4.76 ft), at an average annual rate of ~0.65 centimetres (0.26 in). In Yukon , the zone of continuous permafrost might have moved 100 kilometres (62 mi) poleward since 1899, but accurate records only go back 30 years. The extent of subsea permafrost
8190-612: The Commonwealth Braille and Talking Book Cooperative, developed a Braille code for the Inuktitut language syllabics. This code is based on representing the syllabics' orientation. Machine translation from Unicode UTF-8 and UTF-16 can be performed using the Liblouis Braille translation system<ref>{{Cite web|url= https://liblouis.io/ |title=Liblouis |access-date= which includes an Inuktitut Braille translation table. The book ᐃᓕᐊᕐᔪᒃ ᓇᓄᕐᓗ ( The Orphan and
8320-638: The Polar Bear ) became the first work ever translated into Inuktitut Braille, and a copy is held at the headquarters of the Nunavut Public Library Services at Baker Lake . Although as many of the examples as possible are novel or extracted from Inuktitut texts, some of the examples in this article are drawn from Introductory Inuktitut and Inuktitut Linguistics for Technocrats . Permafrost Permafrost (from perma- ' permanent ' and frost )
8450-503: The United States, while under the scenario of high global warming and worst-case permafrost feedback response, they would approach year 2019 emissions of China. Fewer studies have attempted to describe the impact directly in terms of warming. A 2018 paper estimated that if global warming was limited to 2 °C (3.6 °F), gradual permafrost thaw would add around 0.09 °C (0.16 °F) to global temperatures by 2100, while
8580-412: The active layer subject to permafrost thaw, this exposes formerly stored carbon to biogenic processes which facilitate its entrance into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and methane . Because carbon emissions from permafrost thaw contribute to the same warming which facilitates the thaw, it is a well-known example of a positive climate change feedback . Permafrost thaw is sometimes included as one of
8710-443: The air temperature, with mean annual temperatures tending to increase with depth due to the geothermal crustal gradient. Thus, if the mean annual air temperature is only slightly below 0 °C (32 °F), permafrost will form only in spots that are sheltered (usually with a northern or southern aspect , in the north and south hemispheres respectively) creating discontinuous permafrost. Usually, permafrost will remain discontinuous in
8840-568: The airport: The western part of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories use a Latin alphabet usually called Inuinnaqtun or Qaliujaaqpait , reflecting the predispositions of the missionaries who reached this area in the late 19th century and early 20th. Moravian missionaries, with the purpose of introducing Inuit to Christianity and the Bible , contributed to the development of an Inuktitut alphabet in Greenland during
8970-574: The annual permafrost emissions are likely comparable with global emissions from deforestation , or to annual emissions of large countries such as Russia , the United States or China . Apart from its climate impact, permafrost thaw brings more risks. Formerly frozen ground often contains enough ice that when it thaws, hydraulic saturation is suddenly exceeded, so the ground shifts substantially and may even collapse outright. Many buildings and other infrastructure were built on permafrost when it
9100-429: The areas where it is shallowest, yet reaches 1,493 m (4,898 ft) in the northern Lena and Yana River basins in Siberia . Calculations indicate that the formation time of permafrost greatly slows past the first several metres. For instance, over half a million years was required to form the deep permafrost underlying Prudhoe Bay, Alaska , a time period extending over several glacial and interglacial cycles of
9230-511: The atmosphere as methane, those emissions will cause 40-70% of the total warming caused by permafrost thaw during the 21st century. Much of the uncertainty about the eventual extent of permafrost methane emissions is caused by the difficulty of accounting for the recently discovered abrupt thaw processes, which often increase the fraction of methane emitted over carbon dioxide in comparison to the usual gradual thaw processes. Another factor which complicates projections of permafrost carbon emissions
9360-554: The atmosphere, as well as the transfer of carbon between land and water as methane, dissolved organic carbon , dissolved inorganic carbon , particulate inorganic carbon and particulate organic carbon . Most of the bacteria and fungi found in permafrost cannot be cultured in the laboratory, but the identity of the microorganisms can be revealed by DNA -based techniques. For instance, analysis of 16S rRNA genes from late Pleistocene permafrost samples in eastern Siberia 's Kolyma Lowland revealed eight phylotypes , which belonged to
9490-409: The chance to fully decompose and release their carbon , making tundra soil a carbon sink . As global warming heats the ecosystem, frozen soil thaws and becomes warm enough for decomposition to start anew, accelerating the permafrost carbon cycle . Depending on conditions at the time of thaw, decomposition can release either carbon dioxide or methane , and these greenhouse gas emissions act as
9620-421: The coast of Tuktoyaktuk in western Arctic Canada , where the remains of Laurentide Ice Sheet are located. Buried surface ice may derive from snow, frozen lake or sea ice , aufeis (stranded river ice) and even buried glacial ice from the former Pleistocene ice sheets. The latter hold enormous value for paleoglaciological research, yet even as of 2022, the total extent and volume of such buried ancient ice
9750-567: The community of Arctic Bay in the Canadian territory of Nunavut . There is a port and dock about 3.7 km (2.3 mi) north of the abandoned mine site, which was used for shipping concentrate from the site, and receiving supplies ( 73°04′08″N 084°32′57″W / 73.06889°N 84.54917°W / 73.06889; -84.54917 ). It is used by the Canadian Coast Guard for training. Nanisivik Airport , located 8 nautical miles (15 km; 9.2 mi) south,
9880-704: The damage to buildings ($ 2.8 billion), but there's also damage to roads ($ 700 million), railroads ($ 620 million), airports ($ 360 million) and pipelines ($ 170 million). Similar estimates were done for RCP4.5, a less intense scenario which leads to around 2.5 °C (4.5 °F) by 2100, a level of warming similar to the current projections. In that case, total damages from permafrost thaw are reduced to $ 3 billion, while damages to roads and railroads are lessened by approximately two-thirds (from $ 700 and $ 620 million to $ 190 and $ 220 million) and damages to pipelines are reduced more than ten-fold, from $ 170 million to $ 16 million. Unlike
10010-486: The damage to residential infrastructure may reach $ 15 billion, while total public infrastructure damages could amount to 132 billion. This includes oil and gas extraction facilities, of which 45% are believed to be at risk. Outside of the Arctic, Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (sometimes known as "the Third Pole"), also has an extensive permafrost area. It is warming at twice the global average rate, and 40% of it
10140-605: The discontinuous zone. Observed warming was up to 3 °C (5.4 °F) in parts of Northern Alaska (early 1980s to mid-2000s) and up to 2 °C (3.6 °F) in parts of the Russian European North (1970–2020). This warming inevitably causes permafrost to thaw: active layer thickness has increased in the European and Russian Arctic across the 21st century and at high elevation areas in Europe and Asia since
10270-564: The eastern entrance to the Northwest Passage , and the existence of a deep-water berthing facility at the site, as well as a "jet-capable" airstrip nearby. Detailed planning for the project began in August 2007, with environmental studies and assessments being carried out in the summer of 2008. Construction at the site was originally expected to begin in the summer of 2010, with early operating capability available in 2012. The facility
10400-416: The end of summer: as of 2018, the average thickness in the Northern Hemisphere is ~145 centimetres (4.76 ft), but there are significant regional differences. Northeastern Siberia , Alaska and Greenland have the most solid permafrost with the lowest extent of active layer (less than 50 centimetres (1.6 ft) on average, and sometimes only 30 centimetres (0.98 ft)), while southern Norway and
10530-459: The environment as the warming progresses. Lastly, concerns have been raised about the potential for pathogenic microorganisms surviving the thaw and contributing to future pandemics . However, this is considered unlikely, and a scientific review on the subject describes the risks as "generally low". Permafrost is soil , rock or sediment that is frozen for more than two consecutive years. In practice, this means that permafrost occurs at
10660-431: The exact proportion is uncertain. It is considered very unlikely that this greening could offset all of the emissions from permafrost thaw during the 21st century, and even less likely that it could continue to keep pace with those emissions after the 21st century. Further, climate change also increases the risk of wildfires in the Arctic, which can substantially accelerate emissions of permafrost carbon. Altogether, it
10790-473: The formation of frozen debris lobes (FDLs), which are defined as "slow-moving landslides composed of soil, rocks, trees, and ice". This is a notable issue in the Alaska 's southern Brooks Range , where some FDLs measured over 100 m (110 yd) in width, 20 m (22 yd) in height, and 1,000 m (1,100 yd) in length by 2012. As of December 2021, there were 43 frozen debris lobes identified in
10920-425: The gradual and ongoing decline of subsea permafrost extent. Nevertheless, its presence remains an important consideration for the "design, construction, and operation of coastal facilities, structures founded on the seabed, artificial islands , sub-sea pipelines , and wells drilled for exploration and production". Subsea permafrost can also overlay deposits of methane clathrate , which were once speculated to be
11050-411: The influence of aspect can never be sufficient to thaw permafrost and a zone of continuous permafrost (abbreviated to CPZ ) forms. A line of continuous permafrost in the Northern Hemisphere represents the most southern border where land is covered by continuous permafrost or glacial ice. The line of continuous permafrost varies around the world northward or southward due to regional climatic changes. In
11180-418: The language of instruction. As the government's interests in the north increased, it started taking over the education of Inuit. After the end of World War II, English was seen as the language of communication in all domains. Officials expressed concerns about the difficulty for Inuit to find employment if they were not able to communicate in English. Inuit were supposed to use English at school, work, and even on
11310-502: The major tipping points in the climate system due to the exhibition of local thresholds and its effective irreversibility. However, while there are self-perpetuating processes that apply on the local or regional scale, it is debated as to whether it meets the strict definition of a global tipping point as in aggregate permafrost thaw is gradual with warming. In the northern circumpolar region, permafrost contains organic matter equivalent to 1400–1650 billion tons of pure carbon, which
11440-505: The manner of'), also known as Eastern Canadian Inuktitut , is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the North American tree line , including parts of the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador , Quebec , to some extent in northeastern Manitoba as well as the Northwest Territories and Nunavut . It is one of the aboriginal languages written with Canadian Aboriginal syllabics . It
11570-594: The mean annual air temperature is lower than the freezing point of water. Exceptions are found in humid boreal forests , such as in Northern Scandinavia and the North-Eastern part of European Russia west of the Urals , where snow acts as an insulating blanket. Glaciated areas may also be exceptions. Since all glaciers are warmed at their base by geothermal heat, temperate glaciers , which are near
11700-510: The mine in 2002, reclamation has been ongoing and the town is abandoned. Residents of Arctic Bay had hoped that the Government of Nunavut would be able to find a new use for the former town site, potentially a trades training centre. They had also hoped to be able to move some of the buildings and equipment to their community. Due to heavy lead-zinc contamination, this was not possible and the homes have been demolished. Local telephone service
11830-496: The mother tongue. This set off the beginning of bilingual schools. In 1969, most Inuit voted to eliminate federal schools and replace them with programs by the General Directorate of New Quebec [ fr ] ( Direction générale du Nouveau-Québec, DGNQ ). Content was now taught in Inuktitut, English, and French. Inuktitut became one of the official languages in the Northwest Territories in 1984. Its status
11960-629: The official language of instruction for Inuit school districts there. It also has some recognition in NunatuKavut and Nunatsiavut —the Inuit area in Labrador —following the ratification of its agreement with the government of Canada and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The 2016 Canadian census reports that 70,540 individuals identify themselves as Inuit, of whom 37,570 self-reported Inuktitut as their mother tongue. The term Inuktitut
12090-403: The original theories for ice inclusion in freezing soils. While there are four categories of ice in permafrost – pore ice, ice wedges (also known as vein ice), buried surface ice and intrasedimental (sometimes also called constitutional ) ice – only the last two tend to be large enough to qualify as massive ground ice. These two types usually occur separately, but may be found together, like on
12220-476: The other costs stemming from climate change in Alaska, such as damages from increased precipitation and flooding, climate change adaptation is not a viable way to reduce damages from permafrost thaw, as it would cost more than the damage incurred under either scenario. In Canada, Northwest Territories have a population of only 45,000 people in 33 communities, yet permafrost thaw is expected to cost them $ 1.3 billion over 75 years, or around $ 51 million
12350-514: The other hands, disturbance of formerly hard soil increases drainage of water reservoirs in northern wetlands . This can dry them out and compromise the survival of plants and animals used to the wetland ecosystem. In high mountains, much of the structural stability can be attributed to glaciers and permafrost. As climate warms, permafrost thaws, decreasing slope stability and increasing stress through buildup of pore-water pressure, which may ultimately lead to slope failure and rockfalls . Over
12480-697: The past century, an increasing number of alpine rock slope failure events in mountain ranges around the world have been recorded, and some have been attributed to permafrost thaw induced by climate change. The 1987 Val Pola landslide that killed 22 people in the Italian Alps is considered one such example. In 2002, massive rock and ice falls (up to 11.8 million m ), earthquakes (up to 3.9 Richter ), floods (up to 7.8 million m water), and rapid rock-ice flow to long distances (up to 7.5 km at 60 m/s) were attributed to slope instability in high mountain permafrost. Permafrost thaw can also result in
12610-491: The phyla Actinomycetota and Pseudomonadota . "Muot-da-Barba-Peider", an alpine permafrost site in eastern Switzerland, was found to host a diverse microbial community in 2016. Prominent bacteria groups included phylum Acidobacteriota , Actinomycetota , AD3, Bacteroidota , Chloroflexota , Gemmatimonadota , OD1, Nitrospirota , Planctomycetota , Pseudomonadota , and Verrucomicrobiota , in addition to eukaryotic fungi like Ascomycota , Basidiomycota , and Zygomycota . In
12740-524: The pipeline from sinking and the Qingzang railway in Tibet employs a variety of methods to keep the ground cool, both in areas with frost-susceptible soil . Permafrost may necessitate special enclosures for buried utilities, called " utilidors ". Globally, permafrost warmed by about 0.3 °C (0.54 °F) between 2007 and 2016, with stronger warming observed in the continuous permafrost zone relative to
12870-403: The playground. Inuit themselves viewed Inuktitut as the way to express their feelings and be linked to their identity, while English was a tool for making money. In the 1960s, the European attitude towards the Inuktitut language started to change. Inuktitut was seen as a language worth preserving, and it was argued that knowledge, particularly in the first years of school, is best transmitted in
13000-510: The presence of natural gas or methane, which produced hydrogen sulfide through reducing the sulfate. The hydrogen sulfide then reacted with the metals to form the sulfides of marcasite (FeS2), pyrite ( FeS 2 ), sphalerite ( (Zn,Fe)S ), and galena (PbS). The Nanisivik deposit once contained 60 million metric tons of pyrite and 12 million tons of lead-zinc ore. The Nanisivik mine is known for its diversity of unusual pyrite pseudomorphs after marcasite and pyrrhotite . Arthur English
13130-595: The presence of permafrost. Black spruce tolerates limited rooting zones, and dominates flora where permafrost is extensive. Likewise, animal species which live in dens and burrows have their habitat constrained by the permafrost, and these constraints also have a secondary impact on interactions between species within the ecosystem . While permafrost soil is frozen, it is not completely inhospitable to microorganisms , though their numbers can vary widely, typically from 1 to 1000 million per gram of soil. The permafrost carbon cycle (Arctic Carbon Cycle) deals with
13260-549: The presently living species, scientists observed a variety of adaptations for sub-zero conditions, including reduced and anaerobic metabolic processes. There are only two large cities in the world built in areas of continuous permafrost (where the frozen soil forms an unbroken, below-zero sheet) and both are in Russia – Norilsk in Krasnoyarsk Krai and Yakutsk in the Sakha Republic . Building on permafrost
13390-414: The region for another Geological Survey of Canada. Soon thereafter Texas Gulf Sulfur Company (later Texasgulf Inc., now broken up into bits such as Intrepid Potash ) evaluated the region and staked 15 claims. Extensive drilling and exploration over the next decade led to the procurement of heavy equipment in 1970 and bulk metallurgical testing. Mineral Resources International of Calgary , Alberta, traded
13520-449: The regions are not required to stop using their familiar writing systems. Implementation plans are to be established for each region. It includes letters such as ff , ch , and rh , the sounds for which exist in some dialects but do not have standard equivalents in syllabics. It establishes a standard alphabet but not spelling or grammar rules. Long vowels are written by doubling the vowel (e.g., aa , ii , uu ). The apostrophe represents
13650-443: The remoteness of Nunatsiavut from other Inuit communities, has made it into a distinct dialect with a separate literary tradition. The Nunatsiavummiut call their language Inuttut ( ᐃᓄᑦᑐᑦ ). Although Nunatsiavut claims over 4,000 inhabitants of Inuit descent, only 550 reported Inuktitut to be their native language in the 2001 census, mostly in the town of Nain . Inuktitut is seriously endangered in Labrador. Nunatsiavut also had
13780-546: The rest of the Inuktitut-speaking world, resulting in a growing standardization of the local dialect as something separate from other forms of Inuktitut. In the Nunavik dialect, Inuktitut is called Nunavimmiutut ( ᐃᓄᑦᑎᑐᑦ ). This dialect is also sometimes called Tarramiutut or Taqramiutut ( ᑕᕐᕋᒥᐅᑐᑦ or ᑕᖅᕐᕋᒥᐅᑐᑦ ). Sub dialects of Inuktitut in this region include Tarrarmiut and Itivimuit. Itivimuit
13910-534: The rights to a sulphur deposit in Mexico for a long term option on the Strathcona Sound property, which eventually translated into 54% ownership of Nanisivik Mines Limited . Strathcona Mineral Services Limited was hired to run the mine as an independent manager and successfully initiated production. The mine opened in 1976 and yielded primarily zinc, however silver and lead were collected as by-products. It
14040-876: The same consonant have related glyphs rather than unrelated ones. All of the characters needed for the Inuktitut syllabary are available in the Unicode block Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics . The territorial government of Nunavut , Canada, has developed TrueType fonts called Pigiarniq ( ᐱᒋᐊᕐᓂᖅ [pi.ɡi.aʁ.ˈniq] ), Uqammaq ( ᐅᖃᒻᒪᖅ [u.qam.maq] ), and Euphemia ( ᐅᕓᒥᐊ [u.vai.mi.a] ) for computer displays. They were designed by Vancouver -based Tiro Typeworks. Apple Macintosh computers include an Inuktitut IME (Input Method Editor) as part of keyboard language options. Linux distributions provide locale and language support for Iñupiaq , Kalaallisut and Inuktitut. In 2012 Tamara Kearney, Manager of Braille Research and Development at
14170-427: The scenario most similar to today, SSP2-4.5 , around 60% of the current infrastructure would be at high risk by 2090 and simply maintaining it would cost $ 6.31 billion, with adaptation reducing these costs by 20.9% at most. Holding the global warming to 2 °C (3.6 °F) would reduce these costs to $ 5.65 billion, and fulfilling the optimistic Paris Agreement target of 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) would save
14300-419: The second half of the century. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Agreement is projected to stabilize the risk after mid-century; otherwise, it'll continue to worsen. In Alaska alone, damages to infrastructure by the end of the century would amount to $ 4.6 billion (at 2015 dollar value) if RCP8.5 , the high-emission climate change scenario , were realized. Over half stems from
14430-628: The soil remains frozen. The Melnikov Permafrost Institute in Yakutsk found that pile foundations should extend down to 15 metres (49 ft) to avoid the risk of buildings sinking. At this depth the temperature does not change with the seasons, remaining at about −5 °C (23 °F). Two other approaches are building on an extensive gravel pad (usually 1–2 m (3 ft 3 in – 6 ft 7 in) thick); or using anhydrous ammonia heat pipes . The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System uses heat pipes built into vertical supports to prevent
14560-702: The southern Brooks Range, where they could potentially threaten both the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) corridor and the Dalton Highway , which is the main transport link between the Interior Alaska and the Alaska North Slope . As of 2021, there are 1162 settlements located directly atop the Arctic permafrost, which host an estimated 5 million people. By 2050, permafrost layer below 42% of these settlements
14690-474: The surface. However, only a fraction of this stored carbon is expected to enter the atmosphere. In general, the volume of permafrost in the upper 3 m of ground is expected to decrease by about 25% per 1 °C (1.8 °F) of global warming, yet even under the RCP8.5 scenario associated with over 4 °C (7.2 °F) of global warming by the end of the 21st century, about 5% to 15% of permafrost carbon
14820-537: The surrounding ground begins to jut outward at a slope. This can eventually result in the formation of large-scale land forms around this core of permafrost, such as palsas – long (15–150 m (49–492 ft)), wide (10–30 m (33–98 ft)) yet shallow (<1–6 m (3 ft 3 in – 19 ft 8 in) tall) peat mounds – and the even larger pingos , which can be 3–70 m (10–230 ft) high and 30–1,000 m (98–3,281 ft) in diameter . Only plants with shallow roots can survive in
14950-859: The top 2.5 meters of clay sediments, yet it takes between 10 and 10,000 years for peat sediments and between 1,000 and 1,000,000 years for silt sediments. Permafrost processes such as thermal contraction generating cracks which eventually become ice wedges and solifluction – gradual movement of soil down the slope as it repeatedly freezes and thaws – often lead to the formation of ground polygons, rings, steps and other forms of patterned ground found in arctic, periglacial and alpine areas. In ice-rich permafrost areas, melting of ground ice initiates thermokarst landforms such as thermokarst lakes , thaw slumps, thermal-erosion gullies, and active layer detachments. Notably, unusually deep permafrost in Arctic moorlands and bogs often attracts meltwater in warmer seasons, which pools and freezes to form ice lenses , and
15080-435: The transfer of carbon from permafrost soils to terrestrial vegetation and microbes, to the atmosphere, back to vegetation, and finally back to permafrost soils through burial and sedimentation due to cryogenic processes. Some of this carbon is transferred to the ocean and other portions of the globe through the global carbon cycle. The cycle includes the exchange of carbon dioxide and methane between terrestrial components and
15210-618: The use of Inuktitut, while lower among the young than the elderly, has stopped declining in Canada as a whole and may even be increasing in Nunavut. The South Baffin dialect ( Qikiqtaaluk nigiani , ᕿᑭᖅᑖᓗᒃ ᓂᒋᐊᓂ ) is spoken across the southern part of Baffin Island , including the territorial capital Iqaluit . This has in recent years made it a much more widely heard dialect, since a great deal of Inuktitut media originates in Iqaluit . Some linguists also distinguish an East Baffin dialect from either South Baffin or North Baffin dialect , which
15340-424: The very high emission scenario RCP8.5, 46% of industrial and contaminated sites would start thawing by 2050, and virtually all of them would be affected by the thaw by 2100. Organochlorines and other persistent organic pollutants are of a particular concern, due to their potential to repeatedly reach local communities after their re-release through biomagnification in fish. At worst, future generations born in
15470-444: The water drains or evaporates, soil structure weakens and sometimes becomes viscous until it regains strength with decreasing moisture content. One visible sign of permafrost degradation is the random displacement of trees from their vertical orientation in permafrost areas. Global warming has been increasing permafrost slope disturbances and sediment supplies to fluvial systems, resulting in exceptional increases in river sediment. On
15600-469: The year 2022 concluded that if the goal of preventing 2 °C (3.6 °F) of warming was realized, then the average annual permafrost emissions throughout the 21st century would be equivalent to the year 2019 annual emissions of Russia. Under RCP4.5, a scenario considered close to the current trajectory and where the warming stays slightly below 3 °C (5.4 °F), annual permafrost emissions would be comparable to year 2019 emissions of Western Europe or
15730-784: Was a prospector on CGS Arctic , the steamship of Captain Joseph-Elzéar Bernier , as part of the Geological Survey of Canada in 1910. They wintered the 1910-11 winter in Arctic Bay (20 km (12 mi) south-east of Nanisivik). In 1911 Arthur English published his discovery of a "very large body of ore" at Nanisivik. J.F. Tibbitt and F. McInnes travelled from Churchill, Manitoba to Nanisivik by dog sled (3,000 km [1,900 mi]) and staked their claims in 1937, but were unable to develop them. In 1956 R. G. Blackadar and R. R. H. Lemon published maps of
15860-528: Was built up over thousands of years. This amount equals almost half of all organic material in all soils , and it is about twice the carbon content of the atmosphere , or around four times larger than the human emissions of carbon between the start of the Industrial Revolution and 2011. Further, most of this carbon (~1,035 billion tons) is stored in what is defined as the near-surface permafrost, no deeper than 3 metres (9.8 ft) below
15990-411: Was discontinued on February 19, 2007, on approval from CRTC . As of the 2006 census the population was 0, a drop from the 2001 census with a population of 77. On August 8, 2007, CBC News reported that Canadian Forces documents showed plans to convert the site into a naval station. The plan, which would turn the former mine's existing port into a deepwater facility, would cost $ 60 million and it
16120-653: Was expected that Prime Minister Stephen Harper would make an announcement during his stop in Resolute . On August 10, 2007, Harper announced construction of a new docking and refuelling facility in Nanisivik for the Canadian Forces, in an effort to maintain a Canadian presence in Arctic waters during the navigable season (June–October). The choice for Nanisivik as a site was partially based on its location within
16250-514: Was expected to begin in 2013, with the station operational by 2016. After repeated delays, construction on the site finally commenced in 2015. The station had been expected to be operational in summer 2019. After numerous delays during construction, as of January 2023 the expected completion is in 2024. According to the Department of National Defence, the main reasons for the frequent delays are rising costs of construction, logistics issues and
16380-444: Was frozen and stable, and so are vulnerable to collapse if it thaws. Estimates suggest nearly 70% of such infrastructure is at risk by 2050, and that the associated costs could rise to tens of billions of dollars in the second half of the century. Furthermore, between 13,000 and 20,000 sites contaminated with toxic waste are present in the permafrost, as well as the natural mercury deposits, which are all liable to leak and pollute
16510-577: Was planned to be fully operational by 2015. Once completed, the naval station will likely be home to the Harry DeWolf -class offshore patrol vessels . These ships have ice-breaking capability and help the government's goal to enforce Canada's sovereignty over the region. These ships will likely allow the Victoria -class submarines to travel in the Canadian Arctic region. The facility
16640-455: Was solely an oral language . However, European colonialism brought the schooling system to Canada. The missionaries of the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches were the first ones to deliver formal education to Inuit in schools. The teachers used the Inuktitut language for instruction and developed writing systems. In 1928 the first residential school for Inuit opened, and English became
16770-524: Was to have an initial operational capability in 2012, and be fully complete in 2015 but is behind schedule. Development is being delayed because environmental cleanup has been delayed as much as possible by Breakwater Resources Ltd., owned by Nyrstar N.V. In 2011 and 2012, the government started backing down on the Nanisivik conversion plans, explaining that construction in the far north is too expensive. The station will be primarily used for refuelling Arctic patrol and other government vessels, and construction
16900-446: Was used as the main airport for Arctic Bay until 2010, when the lengthened Arctic Bay Airport took over. The airport is about 19 km (12 mi) directly southeast of Arctic Bay but the road between them is 32 km (20 mi). In the 2021 Canadian census conducted by Statistics Canada , Nanisivik had a population of 0, no change from its 2016 population of 0. With a land area of 165.49 km (63.90 sq mi), it had
#120879