Lake Hazen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Lake Hazen | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Location | 118 km southwest of Alert, Nunavut |
| Coordinates | |
| Primary inflows | Glaciers of the Eureka Uplands: Henrietta Nesmith Glacier Gilmour Glaciers |
| Primary outflows | Ruggles River |
| Catchment area | 4,900 km² |
| Basin countries | Canada |
| Max. length | 70 kilometres (43 mi) |
| Max. width | 11 kilometres (7 mi) |
| Surface area | 537.5 km² |
| Average depth | 280 m |
| Max. depth | 289 m |
| Shore length1 | 185 km |
| Surface elevation | 158 m |
| Islands | St. John's Island |
| 1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure. | |
Lake Hazen is often called the northernmost lake of Canada, in the northern part of Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, but detailed maps show several smaller lakes up to more than 100 km further north on Canada's northernmost island. Turnabout Lake is immediately northeast of the northern end of Hazen lake. Still further north are the Upper and Lower Dumbell Lakes, with Upper Dumbell Lake 5.2 km southwest of Alert, Canada's northernmost settlement on the coast of Lincoln Sea, Arctic Ocean.[1]
The northeastern end of Lake Hazen is 118 km southwest of Alert. Lake Hazen is the world's largest lake north of the Arctic Circle by volume. By surface area, it is third largest, after Lake Taymyr in Russia and Lake Inari in Finland. Lake Hazen is 70 km long and up to 11 km wide, with an area of 542 km². It stretches in a southwest-northeast direction from to . The lake is up to 289 meters deep. The shoreline is 185 km long and 158 meters above sea level. It has several islands, the largest of them being St. John's Island, which is 7 km long and less than one kilometer wide, also extending in a southwest-northeast direction like the lake itself. Other islands include Gatter Island, Clay Island (both close to the northeastern shore), Whisler Island, and Dyas Island (both close to the southern shore). The lake is covered by ice about ten months a year. It is fed by glaciers from the surrounding Eureka Uplands (Palaeozoic rocks north of the lake, rising up to 2 500 meters above sea level), most importantly Henrietta Nesmith and the Gilmour Glaciers, and drained by 15 km long Ruggles River which flows into Chandler Fjord on the northern east coast of Ellesmere Land. The lake is flanked by the Arctic Cordillera.
The area around the lake is a thermal oasis within a polar desert, with summer temperatures up to 23° C.
The lake is part of Quttinirpaaq National Park.
Artifacts of Thule civilization were discovered near Lake Hazen in 2004.[2] Thule preceded the Inuit. In 1882, Augustus Greely discovered the lake during his expedition 1881-1883. Greely's base camp for the exploration was Fort Conger at the northeastern shore of Ellesmere Island, at , which was established as part of the first International Geophysical Year (IGY). Hazen Camp was established on the northern shore of the lake in 1957 during the IGY, and has been used by various scientific parties since then.
Lake Hazen is populated by a larger and a smaller morphotype of Arctic char. Recent studies show them to be anadromous, though Inuit traditional knowledge states otherwise.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Description of Lake Hazen. University of Guelph. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
- ^ Greg Younger-Lewis. "Ambitious plan proposed for Quttinirpaaq National Park", nunatsiaq, October 29, 2004. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
- ^ Assessing the Health of the Lake Hazen Ecosystem, Ellesmere Island, Northwest Territories at. Environment Canada. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
