Everything about Melville Island Canada totally explained
Melville Island is a vast, uninhabited member of the
Canadian Arctic Archipelago,
Canada with an area of . It is the
33rd largest island in the world and
Canada's 8th largest island. Melville Island is shared by the
Northwest Territories, which is responsible for the western half of the island, and
Nunavut, which is responsible for the eastern half. The mountains on Melville Island, some of the largest in the western Canadian Arctic, reach heights of one kilometre.
The island has little or no vegetation. Where continuous vegetation occurs, it usually consists of hummocks of
mosses,
lichens,
grasses, and
sedges. The only woody species, the
dwarf willow, grows as a dense twisted mat crawling along the ground. However, a diverse animal population exists:
Polar Bear,
Peary Caribou,
musk ox,
Northern Collared Lemming,
Arctic Wolf,
Arctic Fox,
Arctic Hare, and
Ermine (Stoat) are common. A 2003 sighting of a
Grizzly Bear and grizzly tracks by an expedition from the
University of Alberta represents the most northerly report of grizzly bears ever recorded.
Melville Island is one of two major breeding grounds for a small sea goose, the
Western High Arctic Brant (or Gray Brant, Intermediate Brant or Grey-bellied Brent Goose).
DNA analysis and field observations suggest that these birds may be distinct from other brant stocks. Numbering only 4-8,000 birds, this could be one of the rarest goose stocks in the world.
History
Melville Island was first visited by the
British explorer Sir
William Parry in
1819. Not only did he discover the island, but he was forced to spend the winter at what is now called "Winter Harbour", until
August 1,
1820 owing to freeze-up of the sea. The island is named for
Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville who was
First Sea Lord at the time.
Melville has surfaced as a candidate for
natural gas deposits. The first Canadian Arctic island exploratory well was spudded in
1961 at Winter Harbour. It drilled Lower
Paleozoic strata to a total depth of . In the
1970s, the northern portion of the island along the Sabine Peninsula proved to contain a major gas field.
Further Information
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