Nettilling Lake

Nettilling Lake is a large freshwater lake in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. It is the eleventh-largest lake in Canada and the world’s largest lake-on-an-island. The lake is located on Baffin Island in the Canadian territory of Nunavut on Baffin. Nettilling Lake empties into the Koukdjuak River and eventually into the Arctic Ocean. Because the lake is in the Arctic, it is often covered in ice and is home to a few types of animals and plants. Nettilling Lake formed thousands of years ago when glacial ice and debris dug out indentations in the rock. The area around the lake does not have any permanent settlements, but the Inuit people have used the area as an important hunting ground for thousands of years. The climate and conditions around Nettilling Lake changed a great deal in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Background

Nettilling Lake is located on the south end of Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The archipelago is made up of ninety-four major islands and more than thirty-six thousand minor islands. The archipelago forms the world’s second-largest Arctic landmass after Greenland and contains six of the world’s thirty largest islands. Many of the islands feature tall mountain peaks and ice caps made of glacier ice.

Baffin Island is Canada’s largest island and the world’s fifth-largest. It is located between Greenland and mainland Canada. The island has an area of about 95,928 square miles (507,451 square kilometers), and it is separated from mainland Canada to the south by the Hudson Strait and from Greenland to the east by the Baffin Bay and the Davis Strait.

The island’s topography was greatly influenced by glacial movements. It has several mountains that rise above 7,000 feet (2,000 meters) and its coast is lined by numerous fjords. Baffin Island also has numerous natural resources, including iron ore, silver, lead, and zinc. In the 1970s, the Canadian government created the Auyuittuq National Park Reserve to help preserve the island’s natural landscape.

Baffin Island, remains ice-locked for most of the year, is home to some Inuit communities and small settlements, most of which are located along the coast. One of the settlements is Iqaluit, near Frobisher Bay. The island was not of particular interest to the first European to reach the area, though British explorer Martin Frobisher noted the island’s presence during his search for the Northwest Passage in the 1500s. The island gets its name from the English navigator William Baffin. Baffin Island and the rest of the archipelago became part of the new territory of Nunavut in 1999. Iqaluit was named the capital of Nunavut.

Overview

Nettilling Lake is about 76 miles (123 kilometers) long and has a total area of about 3,444 miles (5,542 square kilometers). It is located on the southern end of Baffin Island near the Great Plain of the Koukdjuak. Nettilling Lake is the largest lake in Nunavut and the eleventh largest in Canada. It is also the largest body of freshwater in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The lake is about 68 miles (110 kilometers) southwest of Auyuittuq National Park and 174 miles (280 kilometers) northwest of Iqaluit. The island’s name derives from the Inuktitut language, which is spoken by the Inuit in the central and eastern Canadian Arctic. Because of its far-northern location, Nettilling Lake is frozen for much of the year.

Nettilling Lake is fed by Amadjuak Lake, the second-largest lake on Baffin Island, and other small lakes and streams. The western half of Nettilling Lake is deeper than its eastern half. The entire lake is home to numerous islands and empties from its west shore into the Koukdjuak River. This shallow river runs into the Arctic Ocean via the Foxe Basin.

Nettilling Lake is located near the Great Plain of the Koukdjuak, which is a large, flat lowland made up of limestone and shale. It has many marshy areas with an abundance of plants that include sedges, grass, lichen, and moss. The area has few native animal species, but is an important area for migratory birds and has a large goose colony. It is also an important area for caribou that feed and near the lake. Scientists have found three species of fish—arctic char and two species of stickleback—in the lake. Ringed seals occasionally travel near the lake as well.

Nettilling Lake does not have any permanent settlements near it, but it has been an important area for the Inuit living on Baffin Island for thousands of years. The Inuit usually live in coastal areas, but they travel inland for hunting. They move toward Nettilling Lake to find the caribou population, which migrates near the lake in spring and summer. This annual hunt is very important because the Inuit rely on the warm caribou hides to protect them from the cold.

Nettilling Lake formed because of the movement of Arctic glaciers thousands of years ago. The ice and the debris carried by the glaciers scooped large marks and indentations into the rock. These indentations eventually filled with water. This process is part of the reason why the archipelago includes numerous lakes, many of which formed between 16,000 and 4,000 BCE. The ice also carved large hills that followed the direction in which the ice moved. Scientists also believe that the region near Nettilling Lake was covered by a large after the glaciers retreated. However, by about 4,000 BCE, the lakes had most likely transformed into freshwater bodies. Nettilling Lake is the largest lake-on-an-island in the world.

As with most of the Arctic region, Nettilling Lake is being affected by climate change. Because the region experiences climate warming faster than other parts of the world, the archipelago’s glaciers are disappearing. Scientists have observed the effects of climate change on Baffin Island and noticed that the warming is occurring there at an increased frequency.

Bibliography

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