The Ungava Peninsula of Nunavik, Quebec, Canada, is bounded by Hudson Bay to the west,

Hudson Strait Hudson Strait (french: Détroit d'Hudson) links the Atlantic Ocean and 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 ...

to the north, and Ungava Bay to the east. This peninsula is part of the Labrador Peninsula, and covers about . Its northernmost point is Cape Wolstenholme, which is also the northernmost point of Quebec. The peninsula is also part of the

Canadian Shield The Canadian Shield (french: Bouclier canadien ), 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 (or Laurentia), the anc ...

, 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.

Climate

The climate is extremely cold (''Dfc'' in the Köppen climate classification) because the

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 Sc ...

keeps the region (and all of northern Québec) colder in the summer than other regions at comparable latitudes:

Demographics

The 10,000 inhabitants of the peninsula (90% Inuit), live in 12 villages spread along the coast. The largest village,

Kuujjuaq Kuujjuaq (; iu, ᑰᑦᔪᐊᖅ, i=no or iu, ᑰᔾᔪᐊᖅ, i=no, label=none, "Great River"), formerly known as 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 ...

, is the capital of the

Kativik Regional Government The Kativik Regional Government (french: Administration régionale Kativik, KGR) encompasses 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 ...

, 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.

Geology

The Ungava Peninsula, situated on the northeast portion of the

, is 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 Intrusive rock is formed when magma penetrates existing rock, crystallizes, and solidifies underground to form '' intrusions'', such as batholiths, dikes, sills, laccoliths, and volcanic necks.Intrusive RocksIntrusive rocks accessdate: March ...

by Paleoproterozoic diabase dykes (ca.2.0–2.2 Ga). The

supracrustal rocks Supracrustal rocks (''supra'' (Latin for "above")) are rocks that were deposited on the existing basement rocks of the crust, hence the name. They may be further metamorphosed from both sedimentary and volcanic rocks. The oldest minerals on Eart ...

comprise

nappe In geology, a nappe or thrust sheet is a large sheetlike body of rock that has been moved more than or above a thrust fault from its original position. Nappes form in compressional tectonic settings like continental collision zones or on the ...

s 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 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 (flak ...

to granulite facies. U–Pb isotope analyses of

zircon Zircon () is a mineral belonging to the group of nesosilicates and is a source of the metal zirconium. Its chemical name is zirconium(IV) silicate, and its corresponding chemical formula is Zr SiO4. An empirical formula showing some of the ...

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.

Fauna

The

Ungava brown bear The Ungava brown bear (formerly ''Ursus arctos ungavaesis'') is an extinct population of grizzly bears (''Ursus arctos horribilis'') that inhabited the forests of northern Quebec and Labrador until the early 20th century. Other names are the "Lab ...

, an extinct population of the

grizzly bear The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America. In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horr ...

, is named after this peninsula.

References

External links