Melville Island is a vast, uninhabited member of the
Canadian Arctic ArchipelagoThe Canadian Arctic Archipelago, also known as just the Arctic Archipelago, is an archipelago north of the Canadian mainland in the Arctic...
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
with an area of . It is the
33rd largest island in the world and
Canada's eighth largest island. Melville Island is shared by the
Northwest TerritoriesThe Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada....
, which is responsible for the western half of the island, and
NunavutNunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999 via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993...
, which is responsible for the eastern half.
Melville Island is a vast, uninhabited member of the
Canadian Arctic ArchipelagoThe Canadian Arctic Archipelago, also known as just the Arctic Archipelago, is an archipelago north of the Canadian mainland in the Arctic...
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
with an area of . It is the
33rd largest island in the world and
Canada's eighth largest island. Melville Island is shared by the
Northwest TerritoriesThe Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada....
, which is responsible for the western half of the island, and
NunavutNunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999 via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993...
, which is responsible for the eastern half. The border runs along the
110th meridian westThe meridian 110° west of Greenwich is a line of longitude that extends from the North Pole across the Arctic Ocean, North America, the Pacific Ocean, the Southern Ocean, and Antarctica to the South Pole....
. 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
mossMosses are small, soft plants that are typically 1–10 cm tall, though some species are much larger. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations. They do not have flowers or seeds, and their simple leaves cover the thin wiry stems...
es,
lichenLichens are composite organisms consisting of a symbiotic association of a fungus with a photosynthetic partner , usually either a green alga or cyanobacterium...
s,
grassGrasses, or more technically graminoids, are monocotyledonous, usually herbaceous plants with narrow leaves growing from the base. They include the "true grasses", of the Poaceae family, as well as the sedges and the rushes . The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns...
es, and
sedgeCyperaceae is a family of monocot flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses or rushes. The family is large, with some 4,000 species described in about 70 genera. These species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group occurring in tropical...
s. The only woody species, the
dwarf willowSalix herbacea is a species of tiny creeping willow ....
, grows as a dense twisted mat crawling along the ground. However, a diverse animal population exists:
Polar BearThe polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest carnivore species found on land. It is also the largest bear, together with the omnivore Kodiak bear which is approximately...
,
Peary CaribouThe Peary Caribou is a caribou subspecies found in the high Arctic islands of Canada's Nunavut and Northwest territories. They are the smallest of the North American caribou, with the females weighing an average of 60 kg and the males 110 kg...
,
musk oxThe muskox is an Arctic mammal of the Bovidae family, noted for its thick coat and for the strong odor emitted by males, from which its name derives...
,
Northern Collared LemmingThe Northern Collared Lemming , sometimes called the Peary Land Collared Lemming in Canada, is a small North American lemming. At one time, it was considered to be a subspecies of the Arctic Lemming...
,
Arctic WolfThe Arctic Wolf , also called Polar Wolf or White Wolf, is a mammal of the Canidae family, and a subspecies of the Gray Wolf...
,
Arctic FoxThe Arctic Fox , also known as the White Fox or Snow Fox, is a small fox native to cold Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and is common throughout the Arctic tundra biome...
,
Arctic HareThe Arctic Hare is a hare which is largely adapted to polar and mountainous habitats. It was once considered a subspecies of the Mountain Hare, but it is now regarded as a separate species. The Arctic Hare survives with a thick coat of fur and usually digs holes under the ground or snow to keep...
, and
ErmineThe stoat or ermine is a small mammal of the family Mustelidae. It is also known as a Shorttail Weasel and less frequently as an ermelin...
(Stoat) are common. A 2003 sighting of a
Grizzly BearThe grizzly bear , also known as the silvertip bear, is a subspecies of brown bear that generally lives in the uplands of western North America....
and grizzly tracks by an expedition from the
University of AlbertaThe University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the top universities in Canada...
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 BrantThe Brant Goose , a goose of the genus Branta, is known in North America as Brant, Brent Goose or Black Brant. The spelling "Brant" is the original one, with "Brent" being a later folk-etymological idea that it was derived from a classical Greek waterbird name brenthos...
(or Gray Brant, Intermediate Brant or Grey-bellied Brent Goose).
DNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and some viruses. The main role of DNA molecules is the long-term storage of information...
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
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
explorer Sir
William ParrySir William Edward Parry was an English rear-admiral and Arctic explorer; "an evangelical [Christian] and an ardent advocate of moral reform in the navy."...
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 MelvilleRobert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville KT, PC, FRS was a British statesman, the son of Henry Dundas, the 1st Viscount. Dundas was the Member of Parliament for Hastings in 1794, Rye in 1796 and Midlothian in 1801. He was also Keeper of the Signet for Scotland from 1800...
who was
First Sea LordThe First Sea Lord is the professional head of the Royal Navy and the whole Naval Service; it was formerly known as First Naval Lord. He also holds the title of Chief of Naval Staff, and is known by the abbreviations 1SL/CNS...
at the time.
Melville has surfaced as a candidate for
natural gasNatural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane. It is found associated with fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, and landfills...
deposits. The first Canadian Arctic island exploratory well was spudded in 1961 at Winter Harbour. It drilled Lower
PaleozoicThe Paleozoic or Palaeozoic Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic eon...
strata to a total depth of . In the 1970s, the northern portion of the island on the east side of the Sabine Peninsula proved to contain a major gas field, known as Drake Point. The lease was owned by PanArctic Oils Ltd., a joint operation with the Canadian Government.
External links