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Ungava Peninsula

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Ungava Peninsula
ᐅᖓᕙ
Ungava Peninsula location map.svg
Area252,000 km2 (97,000 mi²)
CountriesCanada

The Ungava Peninsula is the far northwestern part of the Labrador Peninsula of the province of Quebec, Canada. Bounded by Hudson Bay to the west, Hudson Strait to the north, and Ungava Bay to the east, it covers about 252,000 square kilometres (97,000 sq mi). Its northernmost point is Cape Wolstenholme, which is also the northernmost point of Quebec. The peninsula is also part of the Canadian Shield, and consists entirely of treeless tundra dissected by large numbers of rivers and glacial lakes, flowing generally east–west in a parallel fashion. The peninsula was not deglaciated until 6,500 years ago (11,500 years after the Last Glacial Maximum) and is believed to have been the prehistoric centre from which the vast Laurentide Ice Sheet spread over most of North America during the last glacial epoch.

The Unavuk Peninsula is part of the Nunavik proposed autonomous area of Quebec.

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Labrador Peninsula

Labrador Peninsula

The Labrador Peninsula, or Quebec-Labrador Peninsula, is a large peninsula in eastern Canada. It is bounded by Hudson Bay to the west, the Hudson Strait to the north, the Labrador Sea to the east, and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the southeast. The peninsula includes the region of Labrador, which is part of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the regions of Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, Côte-Nord, and Nord-du-Québec, which are in the province of Quebec. It has an area of 1,400,000 km2 (541,000 sq mi).

Quebec

Quebec

Quebec is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is the largest province by area and the second-largest by population. Much of the population lives in urban areas along the St. Lawrence River, between the most populous city, Montreal, and the provincial capital, Quebec City. Quebec is the home of the Québécois nation. Located in Central Canada, the province shares land borders with Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, New Brunswick to the southeast, and a coastal border with Nunavut; in the south it borders Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York in the United States.

Hudson Bay

Hudson Bay

Hudson Bay, sometimes called Hudson's Bay, is a large body of saltwater in northeastern Canada with a surface area of 1,230,000 km2 (470,000 sq mi). It is located north of Ontario, west of Quebec, northeast of Manitoba and southeast of Nunavut, but politically entirely part of Nunavut. It is an inland marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It drains a very large area, about 3,861,400 km2 (1,490,900 sq mi), that includes parts of southeastern Nunavut, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, all of Manitoba, and parts of the U.S. states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana. Hudson Bay's southern arm is called James Bay.

Hudson Strait

Hudson Strait

The Hudson Strait links the Atlantic Ocean and the Labrador Sea to Hudson Bay in Canada. This strait lies between Baffin Island and Nunavik, with its eastern entrance marked by Cape Chidley in Newfoundland and Labrador and Resolution Island off Baffin Island. The strait is about 750 km long with an average width of 125 km, varying from 70 km at the eastern entrance to 240 km at Deception Bay.

Ungava Bay

Ungava Bay

Ungava Bay is a bay in northeastern Canada separating Nunavik from Baffin Island. Although not geographically apparent, it is considered to be a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean for climatic reasons. The bay is roughly oval-shaped, about 260 km (160 mi) at its widest point and about 320 km (200 mi) in length; it has an area of approximately 50,000 km2 (19,000 sq mi). It is generally fairly shallow, under 150 m (490 ft), though at its border with the Atlantic Ocean depths of almost 300 m (980 ft) are reached.

Cape Wolstenholme

Cape Wolstenholme

Cape Wolstenholme is a cape and is the extreme northernmost point of the province of Quebec, Canada. Located on the Hudson Strait, about 28 kilometres (17 mi) north-east of Quebec's northernmost settlement of Ivujivik, it is also the northernmost tip of the Ungava Peninsula, which is in turn the northernmost part of the Labrador Peninsula.

Canadian Shield

Canadian Shield

The Canadian Shield, also called the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton, the ancient geologic core of the North American continent. Glaciation has left the area with only a thin layer of soil, through which exposures of igneous bedrock resulting from its long volcanic history are frequently visible. As a deep, common, joined bedrock region in eastern and central Canada, the Shield stretches north from the Great Lakes to the Arctic Ocean, covering over half of Canada and most of Greenland; it also extends south into the northern reaches of the United States.

Tundra

Tundra

In physical geography, tundra is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes through Russian тундра from the Kildin Sámi word тӯндар meaning "uplands", "treeless mountain tract". There are three regions and associated types of tundra: Arctic tundra, alpine tundra, and Antarctic tundra.

Last Glacial Maximum

Last Glacial Maximum

The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent 26 ka - 20 ka, during an interval of low obliquity. Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Europe, and Asia and profoundly affected Earth's climate by causing a major expansion of deserts, along with a large drop in sea levels. Based on changes in position of ice sheet margins dated via terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides and radiocarbon dating, growth of ice sheets commenced 33,000 years ago and maximum coverage was between 26,500 years and 19–20,000 years ago, when deglaciation commenced in the Northern Hemisphere, causing an abrupt rise in sea level. Decline of the West Antarctica ice sheet occurred between 14,000 and 15,000 years ago, consistent with evidence for another abrupt rise in the sea level about 14,500 years ago. Glacier fluctuations around the Strait of Magellan suggest the peak in glacial surface area was constrained to between 25,200 and 23,100 years ago. Continental ice sheets never reached their isostatic equilibrium during the LGM, as evidenced by high variability in ice volume over short spans of time.

Laurentide Ice Sheet

Laurentide Ice Sheet

The Laurentide Ice Sheet was a massive sheet of ice that covered millions of square miles, including most of Canada and a large portion of the Northern United States, multiple times during the Quaternary glacial epochs, from 2.58 million years ago to the present.

Nunavik

Nunavik

Nunavik comprises the northern third of the province of Quebec, part of the Nord-du-Québec region and nearly coterminous with Kativik. Covering a land area of 443,684.71 km2 (171,307.62 sq mi) north of the 55th parallel, it is the homeland of the Inuit of Quebec and part of the wider Inuit Nunangat. Almost all of the 14,045 inhabitants of the region, of whom 90% are Inuit, live in fourteen northern villages on the coast of Nunavik and in the Cree reserved land (TC) of Whapmagoostui, near the northern village of Kuujjuarapik.

Climate

The climate is extremely cold (Dfc in the Köppen climate classification) because the Labrador Current keeps the region (and all of northern Québec) colder in the summer than other regions at comparable latitudes:[1]

Climate data for Kuujjuaq
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 5.6
(42.1)
7.8
(46.0)
12.1
(53.8)
14.7
(58.5)
31.1
(88.0)
33.1
(91.6)
32.2
(90.0)
30.3
(86.5)
28.3
(82.9)
18.3
(64.9)
10.3
(50.5)
8.3
(46.9)
33.1
(91.6)
Average high °C (°F) −19.7
(−3.5)
−18.7
(−1.7)
−12.9
(8.8)
−4.1
(24.6)
4.3
(39.7)
12.4
(54.3)
17.1
(62.8)
15.6
(60.1)
9.4
(48.9)
2.2
(36.0)
−4.9
(23.2)
−15
(5)
−1.2
(29.8)
Daily mean °C (°F) −24.3
(−11.7)
−23.6
(−10.5)
−18.3
(−0.9)
−9.1
(15.6)
0.3
(32.5)
7.2
(45.0)
11.5
(52.7)
10.6
(51.1)
5.6
(42.1)
−0.7
(30.7)
−8.4
(16.9)
−19.3
(−2.7)
−5.7
(21.7)
Average low °C (°F) −28.8
(−19.8)
−28.4
(−19.1)
−23.6
(−10.5)
−14.1
(6.6)
−3.8
(25.2)
2
(36)
5.8
(42.4)
5.6
(42.1)
1.9
(35.4)
−3.6
(25.5)
−11.9
(10.6)
−23.5
(−10.3)
−10.2
(13.6)
Record low °C (°F) −49.8
(−57.6)
−43.9
(−47.0)
−43.9
(−47.0)
−34.1
(−29.4)
−24.7
(−12.5)
−8.3
(17.1)
−1.6
(29.1)
−1.7
(28.9)
−7.8
(18.0)
−20
(−4)
−31.1
(−24.0)
−43.9
(−47.0)
−49.8
(−57.6)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 33.2
(1.31)
28.4
(1.12)
30.7
(1.21)
27.3
(1.07)
29.6
(1.17)
51.5
(2.03)
59.2
(2.33)
70.4
(2.77)
62.1
(2.44)
51.9
(2.04)
46.6
(1.83)
36
(1.4)
526.8
(20.74)
Average rainfall mm (inches) 0.1
(0.00)
0.6
(0.02)
0.6
(0.02)
2.5
(0.10)
14.8
(0.58)
44.8
(1.76)
59.1
(2.33)
70.0
(2.76)
54.1
(2.13)
25.7
(1.01)
4.7
(0.19)
0.4
(0.02)
277.4
(10.92)
Average snowfall cm (inches) 33.7
(13.3)
29
(11)
31.4
(12.4)
25.3
(10.0)
14.7
(5.8)
6.3
(2.5)
0.1
(0.0)
0.5
(0.2)
7.6
(3.0)
27.5
(10.8)
43.4
(17.1)
37.5
(14.8)
257
(100.9)
Source: Meteorological Service of Canada[1]

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Köppen climate classification

Köppen climate classification

The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notably in 1918 and 1936. Later, German climatologist Rudolf Geiger (1894–1981) introduced some changes to the classification system, which is thus sometimes called the Köppen–Geiger climate classification.

Labrador Current

Labrador Current

The Labrador Current is a cold current in the North Atlantic Ocean which flows from the Arctic Ocean south along the coast of Labrador and passes around Newfoundland, continuing south along the east coast of Canada near Nova Scotia. Near Nova Scotia, this cold water current meets the warm northward moving Gulf Stream. The combination of these two currents produces heavy fogs and has also created one of the richest fishing grounds in the world.

Nord-du-Québec

Nord-du-Québec

Nord-du-Québec is the largest, but the least populous, of the seventeen administrative regions of Quebec, Canada. With nearly 750,000 square kilometres (290,000 sq mi) of land area, and very extensive lakes and rivers, it covers much of the Labrador Peninsula and about 55% of the total land surface area of Quebec, while containing a little more than 0.5% of the population.

Precipitation

Precipitation

In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. Precipitation occurs when a portion of the atmosphere becomes saturated with water vapor, so that the water condenses and "precipitates" or falls. Thus, fog and mist are not precipitation but colloids, because the water vapor does not condense sufficiently to precipitate. Two processes, possibly acting together, can lead to air becoming saturated: cooling the air or adding water vapor to the air. Precipitation forms as smaller droplets coalesce via collision with other rain drops or ice crystals within a cloud. Short, intense periods of rain in scattered locations are called showers.

Meteorological Service of Canada

Meteorological Service of Canada

The Meteorological Service of Canada is a division of Environment and Climate Change Canada, which primarily provides public meteorological information and weather forecasts and warnings of severe weather and other environmental hazards. MSC also monitors and conducts research on the climate, atmospheric science, air quality, water quantities, ice and other environmental issues. MSC operates a network of radio stations throughout Canada transmitting weather and environmental information 24 hours a day called Weatheradio Canada.

Demographics

The Ungava Peninsula has an estimated population of 10,000 inhabitants. These are 90% Inuit, and live in 12 villages spread along the coast. The largest village, Kuujjuaq, is the capital of the Kativik Regional Government, which includes all of the peninsula. The peninsula's offshore islands are part of the Nunavut Territory. The region is accessible by air services, with links to southern Québec, and seasonal shipping when sea-ice breaks up. Thick permafrost prevents the use of conventional building techniques in some areas.

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Inuit

Inuit

Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and Alaska. Inuit languages are part of the Eskimo–Aleut languages, also known as Inuit-Yupik-Unangan, and also as Eskaleut. Inuit Sign Language is a critically endangered language isolate used in Nunavut.

Kuujjuaq

Kuujjuaq

Kuujjuaq, formerly known as Fort Chimo and by other names, is a former Hudson's Bay Company outpost at the mouth of the Koksoak River on Ungava Bay that has become the largest northern village in the Nunavik region of Quebec, Canada. It is the administrative capital of the Kativik Regional Government. Its population was 2,668 as of the 2021 census.

Kativik Regional Government

Kativik Regional Government

The Kativik Regional Government is the representative regional authority for most of the Nunavik region of Quebec. Nunavik is the northern half of the Nord-du-Québec administrative region and includes all the territory north of the 55th parallel. The administrative capital is Kuujjuaq, on the Koksoak River, about 50 kilometres inland from the southern end of the Ungava Bay.

Permafrost

Permafrost

Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface is underlain by permafrost, with the total area of around 18 million km2. This includes substantial areas of Alaska, Greenland, Canada and Siberia. It can also be located on mountaintops in the Southern Hemisphere and beneath ice-free areas in the Antarctic.

Geology

The Ungava Peninsula is situated on the northeast portion of the Canadian Shield where the Rae Province connects with the Superior Province. The region is composed of Archean rocks (ca. 2.7-2.9 Ga) from the Douglas Harbour Domain (see Superior Craton). The Archean rocks are overlain by Paleoproterozoic supracrustal sequences (ca. 1.8–2.1 Ga) and intruded by Paleoproterozoic diabase dykes (ca.2.0–2.2 Ga). The supracrustal rocks comprise nappes that form part of the Ungava and Labrador troughs. In the zone east of the Labrador Trough axis, the Paleoproterozoic deformation reworked the Archean rocks of the Douglas Harbour Domain, as well as the Paleoproterozoic diabase dykes. The metamorphic conditions which parallel the deformation increase from west to east and from middle amphibolite to granulite facies. U–Pb isotope analyses of zircon yield secondary ages around 1790 Ma. These results are interpreted as the age of metamorphism and indicate a reactivation of the northeastern margin of the Superior Province during a Paleoproterozoic tectono-metamorphic event, resulting from probable continental collision. (Madore, 2001). Pingualuit impact crater is located on the peninsula.[2][3]

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Canadian Shield

Canadian Shield

The Canadian Shield, also called the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton, the ancient geologic core of the North American continent. Glaciation has left the area with only a thin layer of soil, through which exposures of igneous bedrock resulting from its long volcanic history are frequently visible. As a deep, common, joined bedrock region in eastern and central Canada, the Shield stretches north from the Great Lakes to the Arctic Ocean, covering over half of Canada and most of Greenland; it also extends south into the northern reaches of the United States.

Paleoproterozoic

Paleoproterozoic

The Paleoproterozoic Era, spanning the time period from 2,500 to 1,600 million years ago (2.5–1.6 Ga), is the first of the three sub-divisions (eras) of the Proterozoic Eon. The Paleoproterozoic is also the longest era of the Earth's geological history. It was during this era that the continents first stabilized.

Sequence (geology)

Sequence (geology)

In geology, a sequence is a stratigraphic unit which is bounded by an unconformity at the top and at the bottom.

Diabase

Diabase

Diabase, also called dolerite or microgabbro, is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grained to aphanitic chilled margins which may contain tachylite.

Dike (geology)

Dike (geology)

A dike or dyke, in geological usage, is a sheet of rock that is formed in a fracture of a pre-existing rock body. Dikes can be either magmatic or sedimentary in origin. Magmatic dikes form when magma flows into a crack then solidifies as a sheet intrusion, either cutting across layers of rock or through a contiguous mass of rock. Clastic dikes are formed when sediment fills a pre-existing crack.

Nappe

Nappe

In geology, a nappe or thrust sheet is a large sheetlike body of rock that has been moved more than 2 km (1.2 mi) or 5 km (3.1 mi) above a thrust fault from its original position. Nappes form in compressional tectonic settings like continental collision zones or on the overriding plate in active subduction zones. Nappes form when a mass of rock is forced over another rock mass, typically on a low angle fault plane. The resulting structure may include large-scale recumbent folds, shearing along the fault plane, imbricate thrust stacks, fensters and klippes.

Labrador

Labrador

Labrador is a geographic and cultural region within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the primarily continental portion of the province and constitutes 71% of the province's area but is home to only 6% of its population. It is separated from the island of Newfoundland by the Strait of Belle Isle. It is the largest and northernmost geographical region in the four Atlantic provinces.

Amphibolite

Amphibolite

Amphibolite is a metamorphic rock that contains amphibole, especially hornblende and actinolite, as well as plagioclase feldspar, but with little or no quartz. It is typically dark-colored and dense, with a weakly foliated or schistose (flaky) structure. The small flakes of black and white in the rock often give it a salt-and-pepper appearance.

Granulite

Granulite

Granulites are a class of high-grade metamorphic rocks of the granulite facies that have experienced high-temperature and moderate-pressure metamorphism. They are medium to coarse–grained and mainly composed of feldspars sometimes associated with quartz and anhydrous ferromagnesian minerals, with granoblastic texture and gneissose to massive structure. They are of particular interest to geologists because many granulites represent samples of the deep continental crust. Some granulites experienced decompression from deep in the Earth to shallower crustal levels at high temperature; others cooled while remaining at depth in the Earth.

Facies

Facies

In geology, a facies is a body of rock with specified characteristics, which can be any observable attribute of rocks, and the changes that may occur in those attributes over a geographic area. A facies encompasses all of the characteristics of a rock including its chemical, physical, and biological features that distinguish it from adjacent rock.

Isotope

Isotope

Isotopes are distinct nuclear species of the same element. They have the same atomic number and position in the periodic table, but differ in nucleon numbers due to different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei. While all isotopes of a given element have almost the same chemical properties, they have different atomic masses and physical properties.

Metamorphism

Metamorphism

Metamorphism is the transformation of existing rock to rock with a different mineral composition or texture. Metamorphism takes place at temperatures in excess of 150 to 200 °C, and often also at elevated pressure or in the presence of chemically active fluids, but the rock remains mostly solid during the transformation. Metamorphism is distinct from weathering or diagenesis, which are changes that take place at or just beneath Earth's surface.

Fauna

The Ungava brown bear, an extinct population of the grizzly bear, is named after this peninsula.[4][5]

Source: "Ungava Peninsula", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, February 6th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ungava_Peninsula.

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See also
References
  1. ^ a b Meteorological Service of Canada (5 May 2012). "Canadian Climate Normals 1971–2000 : Kuujjuaq". Environment Canada. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
  2. ^ "Pingualuit (National Park)". Nunavik Parks. Retrieved 2017-11-25.
  3. ^ "Pingualuit crater (Chubb crater)". Wondermondo.
  4. ^ Spiess, Arthur; Cox, Steven (1976). "Discovery of the skull of a grizzly bear in Labrador" (PDF). Arctic. 29 (4): 194–200. doi:10.14430/arctic2804. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
  5. ^ Loring, Stephen; Spiess, Arthur (2007). "Further Documentation Supporting the Former Existence of Grizzly Bears (Ursus arctos) in Northern Quebec–Labrador" (PDF). Arctic. 60 (1): 7–16. doi:10.14430/arctic260. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
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