Sanirajak (
Inuktitut meaning ''the shoreline''),
Syllabics: ᓴᓂᕋᔭᒃ), formerly known as Hall Beach until 27 February 2020, is an
Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, ...
settlement within the
Qikiqtaaluk Region 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'' ...
, Canada, approximately south of
Igloolik.
History
It was established in 1957 during the construction of a
Distant Early Warning (DEW) site. Currently the settlement is home to a
North Warning System () radar facility and the
Hall Beach Airport.
In 1971, seven
sounding rockets of the
Tomahawk Sandia type were launched from Sanirajak, some reaching altitudes of .
Demographics
In the
2021 Census of Population
The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...
conducted by
Statistics Canada, Sanirajak (Hall Beach) had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
Geography
Climate
The climate is
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 (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless mo ...
(
Köppen: ''ET''), without the presence of
trees and
ice for most of the year.
Summers are very short and cool, with chilly nights. Winters are long and extremely cold, lasting most of the year with little chance of a thaw.
See also
*
List of municipalities in Nunavut
*
Charles Francis Hall
References
Further reading
* McAlpine PJ, and NE Simpson. 1976. "Fertility and Other Demographic Aspects of the Canadian Eskimo Communities of Igloolik and Hall Beach". ''Human Biology; an International Record of Research''. 48, no. 1: 114-38.
* Wenzel, George W. 1997. "Using Harvest Research in Nunavut: An Example from Hall Beach". ''Arctic Anthropology''. 34, no. 1: 18.
{{Spaceport
Populated places in Arctic Canada
Hamlets in the Qikiqtaaluk Region
Road-inaccessible communities of Nunavut
Spaceports