Prince Patrick Island
Encyclopedia
A member of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago
Canadian Arctic Archipelago
The Canadian Arctic Archipelago, also known as the Arctic Archipelago, is a Canadian archipelago north of the Canadian mainland in the Arctic...

, Prince Patrick Island is the westernmost of the Queen Elizabeth Islands
Queen Elizabeth Islands
The Queen Elizabeth Islands are the northernmost cluster of islands in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, split between Nunavut and Northwest Territories in Northern Canada.-Geography:...

 in the Northwest Territories
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...

 of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The area of the island is 15848 km² (6,119 sq mi), making it the 55th largest island in the world and Canada's 14th largest island. It has historically been icebound
Fast ice
Fast ice is sea ice that has frozen along coasts along the shoals, or to the sea floor over shallow parts of the continental shelf, and extends out from land into sea. In Antarctica, fast ice may also extend between grounded icebergs...

 all year, making it one of the most inaccessible parts of Canada.

Located at the entrance of the M'Clure Strait, Prince Patrick Island is uninhabited. A High Arctic Weather Station (H.A.W.S.) called Mould Bay was opened in 1948 as part of a joint Canada-U.S. military effort to support a weather station
Weather station
A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for observing atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, wind speed, wind...

 network. Regular weather observations began on May 14, 1948. It had a temporary staff of between 10 and 40 people. The station was closed in 1997 owing to budget cuts and replaced with an automated weather station at a new location on the airstrip below the station. The last manned weather observations were taken on March 31, 1997, ending the continuous weather record of 1948-1997. The buildings still stand, but as of 2007 most have deteriorated to an unrepairable state. The station represented the only known long-term human settlement of the Island.

The first known sighting of the island was in 1853 by George Mecham
George Mecham
George Mecham was a British naval officer who participated in the search for Franklin's lost expedition. He was the first European to discover Prince Patrick and Eglinton Islands in 1853, both of which he charted in the spring of that year....

, when it was explored by him and Francis Leopold McClintock
Francis Leopold McClintock
Admiral Sir Francis Leopold McClintock or Francis Leopold M'Clintock KCB, FRS was an Irish explorer in the British Royal Navy who is known for his discoveries in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.-Biography:...

 the spring of that year. Much later, it was named for Prince Arthur William Patrick
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn was a member of the shared British and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha royal family who served as the Governor General of Canada, the 10th since Canadian Confederation.Born the seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and...

, Duke of Connaught
Duke of Connaught and Strathearn
The title Duke of Connaught and Strathearn was granted by Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to her third son, Prince Arthur....

, who was Governor General
Governor General of Canada
The Governor General of Canada is the federal viceregal representative of the Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II...

 1911-16.

The island rises to only about 279 m (915.4 ft), and the area is seismically active
Seismology
Seismology is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other planet-like bodies. The field also includes studies of earthquake effects, such as tsunamis as well as diverse seismic sources such as volcanic, tectonic, oceanic,...

.

Prince Patrick Island is the setting for a work of fiction, the novel The Lost Ones (1961) by Ian Cameron
Donald G. Payne
-Biography:Using James Vance Marshall as a pseudonym, Payne has written such books as A River Ran Out of Eden and White-Out . His most famous book is probably Walkabout , first published as The Children and later made into a movie starring Jenny Agutter.Payne has also used Ian Cameron and Donald...

 (Donald G. Payne). It was filmed as the Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...

 film The Island at the Top of the World in 1974. The novel tells of a lost colony of Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...

s living in a lost valley in the island, which, thanks to the volcano
Volcano
2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...

es on the island, is warm and habitable.

Climate

External links



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