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Cornwallis Island is one of the
Queen Elizabeth Islands The Queen Elizabeth Islands (french: Îles de la Reine-Élisabeth; formerly Parry Islands or Parry Archipelago) are the northernmost cluster of islands in Canada's Arctic Archipelago, split between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories in Northe ...
, part of the
Arctic Archipelago The Arctic Archipelago, also known as the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, is an archipelago lying to the north of the Canadian continental mainland, excluding Greenland (an autonomous territory of Denmark). Situated in the northern extremity of No ...
, in the
Qikiqtaaluk Region The Qikiqtaaluk Region, Qikiqtani Region (Inuktitut syllabics: ᕿᑭᖅᑖᓗᒃ ) or Baffin Region is the easternmost, northernmost, and southernmost administrative region of Nunavut, Canada. Qikiqtaaluk is the traditional Inuktitut name f ...
of
Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost 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'' ...
in the
Canadian Arctic Northern Canada, colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories and ...
. It lies to the west of
Devon Island Devon Island ( iu, ᑕᓪᓗᕈᑎᑦ, ) is an island in Canada and the largest uninhabited island (no permanent residents) in the world. It is located in Baffin Bay, Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is one of the largest members of the ...
, the largest uninhabited island in the world, and at its greatest length is about . At in size, it is the 96th largest island in the world, and Canada's 21st largest island. Cornwallis Island is separated by the
Wellington Channel The Wellington Channel () (not to be confused with Wellington Strait) is a natural waterway through the central Canadian Arctic Archipelago in Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut. It runs north–south, separating Cornwallis Island and Devon Island. Quee ...
from Devon Island, and by the
Parry Channel The Parry Channel ( iu, ᑕᓪᓗᕈᑎᐅᑉ ᐃᒪᖓ, ''Tallurutiup Imanga'') is a natural waterway through the central Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Its eastern two-thirds lie in the territory of Nunavut, while its western third (west of 110� ...
from Somerset Island to the south. Northwest of Cornwallis Island lies
Little Cornwallis Island Little Cornwallis Island is one of the Canadian Arctic islands in Nunavut, Canada. It is located at 75°30'N 96°30'W, between Cornwallis Island and Bathurst Island in McDougall Sound, and measures . It is uninhabited. Little Cornwallis Island w ...
, the biggest of a group of small islands at the north end of
McDougall Sound McDougall Sound is an Arctic waterway in Qikiqtaaluk, Nunavut, Canada. It is located between southeastern Bathurst Island and western Cornwallis island. The sound's southern mouth opens to the Parry Channel, and beyond that, to the Barrow Stra ...
, which separates Cornwallis Island from nearby Bathurst Island. Cape Airy is located at the island's southwestern extremity. Also on the southwestern coast,
Griffith Island Griffith Island is a small Antarctic island at the south entrance to Robertson Channel in the Windmill Islands. It was first mapped from air photos taken by USN Operation Highjump and Operation Windmill in 1947 and 1948. It was named by the US-A ...
lies directly across from the island's only hamlet Resolute (Qausuittuq), separated by the wide Resolute Passage. The first European to visit Cornwallis Island was the British Arctic explorer and naval officer Sir
William Edward Parry Sir William Edward Parry (19 December 1790 – 8 July 1855) was an Royal Navy officer and explorer best known for his 1819–1820 expedition through the Parry Channel, probably the most successful in the long quest for the Northwest Pas ...
in 1819. The island is named for
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...
admiral Sir
William Cornwallis Admiral of the Red Sir William Cornwallis, (10 February 17445 July 1819) was a Royal Navy officer. He was the brother of Charles Cornwallis, the 1st Marquess Cornwallis, British commander at the siege of Yorktown. Cornwallis took part in a n ...
. Cornwallis Island is also home to microbiological colonies known as
hypolith In Arctic and Antarctic ecology, a hypolith is a photosynthetic organism, and an extremophile, that lives underneath rocks in climatically extreme deserts such as Cornwallis Island and Devon Island in the Canadian high Arctic. The community it ...
s, from their tendency to take hold under ("hypo") stones ("lith").


Demographics

Resolute is Canada's second most northerly public community, after
Grise Fiord Grise Fiord (; iu, ᐊᐅᔪᐃᑦᑐᖅ, translit=Aujuittuq, lit=place that never thaws, italics=no) is an Inuit hamlet on the southern tip of Ellesmere Island, in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is one of three populated places on ...
, and has a population of 183 in 2021.
Resolute Bay Airport Resolute Bay Airport is located at Resolute, Nunavut, Canada, and is operated by the government of Nunavut. It is one of the northernmost airfields in Canada to receive scheduled passenger airline service (Grise Fiord Airport, which is served ...
acts as a transportation hub for the central islands of the high
Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
of Nunavut.


Image gallery


Climate

The island has a polar arctic climate ( ET) with long cold winters and short cool summers. Resolute, which lies on the south coast of the island, has an annual average temperature of , with an average high for the year of and the average low for the year is . Resolute has a very dry climate with an average
precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...
of a year, most of it falling as snow from September to October. The record high for Resolute is on July 2, 2012. The record low for Resolute is on January 7, 1966. Resolute has never experienced an above-freezing temperature between October 20 and May 6. Between around April 30 and August 13, Resolute experiences
midnight sun The midnight sun is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the summer months in places north of the Arctic Circle or south of the Antarctic Circle, when the Sun remains visible at the local midnight. When the midnight sun is seen in the Arctic, ...
; whilst between around November 7 and February 4 there is
polar night The polar night is a phenomenon where the nighttime lasts for more than 24 hours that occurs in the northernmost and southernmost regions of Earth. This occurs only inside the polar circles. The opposite phenomenon, the polar day, or midni ...
. Between late November and mid-January, the sun is so low that there is not even civil
twilight Twilight is light produced by sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere, when the Sun is below the horizon, which illuminates the lower atmosphere and the Earth's surface. The word twilight can also refer to the periods of time when this i ...
, with the only exception from complete darkness being a deeper-blue sky called ''nautical twilight'' at noon, but there is no true experience of 24 hours of pitch black darkness around noon. For about two weeks before and after the midnight sun in Resolute, the nights are still quite bright since it does not get any darker than civil twilight (this is the twilight where surrounding objects are still visible and outdoor activities can go on without the need for artificial lighting). Resolute, however, does not experience night (the phase of day) from about March 14 to September 29. Resolute does experience thunderstorms during the summer, but they are typically rare in the region.


References


External links


Cornwallis Island in the Atlas of Canada - Toporama; Natural Resources Canada
Islands of the Queen Elizabeth Islands Inhabited islands of Qikiqtaaluk Region {{QikiqtaalukNU-geo-stub