Bylot Sound is the

strait A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the ...

between the mainland of

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

and Saunders Island and Wolstenholme Island in the

Avannaata Avannaata (, ) is a municipality of Greenland created on 1 January 2018 from the bulk of the former Qaasuitsup municipality. It encompasses an area of 522,700 km2 and has 10,726 inhabitants. Geography In the south, Avannaata is flanked ...

municipality, northwest Greenland.

North Star Bay North Star Bay (), also known as Thule Harbor and Wolstenholme Bay, is at the mouth of Wolstenholme Fjord in north-west Greenland. The Dundas Peninsula, terminating in the mesa-like Mount Dundas, is at the north-eastern end of the bay. Two large ...

is the eastern part of the sound.

Geography

The strait separates Saunders Island and Wolstenholme Island from the Greenland mainland. Its minimum width is , between Wolstenholme Island and Cape Atholl, the mainland point at its southwestern end. A peninsula that ends in Mount Dundas is at the eastern end of the sound and of

. The

Inughuit The Inughuit (singular: Inughuaq), Inuhuit, or Smith Sound Inuit, historically called Arctic Highlanders or Polar Eskimos, are an ethnic subgroup of the Greenlandic Inuit. They are the northernmost group of Inuit and the northernmost people in No ...

settlements of Narsaarsuk and

Pituffik Pituffik is a former Inughuit settlement in North Star Bay, near Mount Dundas at the eastern end of Bylot Sound in northern Greenland. The area is now occupied by the U.S. Pituffik Space Base, formerly Thule Air Base. The Inughuit inhabitants wer ...

were on the shores of the sound, but have been abandoned. The United States'

Pituffik Space Base Pituffik Space Base ( ; ; ), formerly Thule Air Base (), is a United States Space Force base located on the northwest coast of Greenland in the Kingdom of Denmark under a defense agreement between Denmark and the United States. 150 United Stat ...

near the eastern end is now the only inhabited place.

History

This strait was named after 17th-century English navigator

Robert Bylot Robert Bylot () was an English explorer who made four voyages to the Arctic. He was uneducated and from a working-class background, but was able to rise to rank of master in the English Royal Navy. Voyages Robert Bylot First voyage, 161 ...

, who led two expeditions to find the

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, near the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada. The eastern route along the Arctic ...

. under Commander James Saunders got frozen-in in the sound in the winter of 1849–1850, during an

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

expedition to search for and resupply Captain Sir

James Clark Ross Sir James Clark Ross (15 April 1800 – 3 April 1862) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer of both the northern and southern polar regions. In the Arctic, he participated in two expeditions led by his uncle, Sir John Ross, John ...

' venture, which itself had sailed in 1848 trying to locate the whereabouts of Sir

John Franklin Sir John Franklin (16 April 1786 – 11 June 1847) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer and colonial administrator. After serving in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812, he led two expeditions into the Northern Canada, Canadia ...

's expedition. While his ship was trapped by ice Saunders named numerous landmarks in that area. In 1968 a

B-52 bomber The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an American long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades. It has been operated by the United States Air ...

carrying four thermonuclear bombs caught fire and crashed on the ice of Bylot Sound while trying to make an emergency landing at Pituffik Space Base (then Thule Air Base), spreading contaminated material over the whole area.

References

{{reflist Avannaata Sounds of North America Straits of Greenland Bodies of water of Baffin Bay