The Arctic Archipelago, also known as the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, is an

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arc ...

lying to the north of the Canadian continental mainland, excluding

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland i ...

(an autonomous territory of Denmark). Situated in the northern extremity of North America and covering about , this group of 36,563 islands, surrounded by the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

, comprises much of Northern Canada, predominately Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. The archipelago is showing some

effects of climate change The effects of climate change impact the physical environment, ecosystems and human societies. The environmental effects of climate change are broad and far-reaching. They affect the water cycle, oceans, sea and land ice ( glaciers), sea le ...

, with some computer estimates determining that melting there will contribute to the rise in sea levels by 2100.

History

Around 2500 BCE, the first humans, the

Paleo-Eskimo The Paleo-Eskimo (also pre-Thule or pre-Inuit) were the peoples who inhabited the Arctic region from Chukotka (e.g., Chertov Ovrag) in present-day Russia across North America to Greenland prior to the arrival of the modern Inuit (Eskimo) and rel ...

s, arrived in the archipelago from the Canadian mainland. Between 1000–1500 CE, they were replaced by the

Thule people The Thule (, , ) or proto-Inuit were the ancestors of all modern Inuit. They developed in coastal Alaska by the year 1000 and expanded eastward across northern Canada, reaching Greenland by the 13th century. In the process, they replaced people o ...

, who are the ancestors of today's

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 ...

. British claims on the islands, the

British Arctic Territories The British Arctic Territories were a constituent region of British North America, composed of islands to the north of continental North America. They are now known as the Arctic Archipelago. The British claim to the area was based on the di ...

, were based on the explorations in the 1570s by Martin Frobisher. Canadian sovereignty was originally (1870–80) only over island portions that drained into

Foxe Basin Foxe Basin is a shallow oceanic basin north of Hudson Bay, in Nunavut, Canada, located between Baffin Island and the Melville Peninsula. For most of the year, it is blocked by sea ice (fast ice) and drift ice made up of multiple ice floes. ...

, Hudson Bay and

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 ...

. Canadian sovereignty over the islands was established by 1880 when Britain transferred them to Canada. The District of Franklin – established in 1895 – comprised almost all of the archipelago. The district was dissolved upon the creation of Nunavut in 1999. Canada claims all the waterways of the

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

Canadian Internal Waters Canadian Internal Waters is a Canadian term for the waters "on the landward side of the baselines of the territorial sea of Canada." Definition The baselines are defined as "the low-water line along the coast or on a low-tide elevation that is situ ...

; however, the United States and most other maritime countries view these as

international waters The terms international waters or transboundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water (or their drainage basins) transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed region ...

. Disagreement over the passages' status has raised Canadian concerns about environmental enforcement, national security, and general sovereignty. East of Ellesmere Island, in the

Nares Strait , other_name = , image = Map indicating Nares Strait.png , alt = , caption = Nares Strait (boxed) is between Ellesmere Island and Greenland. , image_bathymetry = , alt_bathymetry ...

, lies Hans Island, ownership of which is now shared between Canada and Denmark, after a decades-long dispute.

Geography

The archipelago extends some longitudinally and from the mainland to

Cape Columbia Cape Columbia is the northernmost point of land of Canada, located on Ellesmere Island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut. It marks the westernmost coastal point of Lincoln Sea in the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's northernmost point of land ...

, the northernmost point on Ellesmere Island. It is bounded on the west by the Beaufort Sea; on the northwest by the

; on the east by Greenland, Baffin Bay and

Davis Strait Davis Strait is a northern arm of the Atlantic Ocean that lies north of the Labrador Sea. It lies between mid-western Greenland and Baffin Island in Nunavut, Canada. To the north is Baffin Bay. The strait was named for the English explorer John ...

; and on the south by Hudson Bay and the Canadian mainland. The various islands are separated from each other and the continental mainland by a series of waterways collectively known as the

. Two large peninsulas, Boothia and Melville, extend northward from the mainland. The northernmost cluster of islands, including Ellesmere Island, is known as the Queen Elizabeth Islands and was formerly the Parry Islands. The archipelago consists of 36,563 islands, of which 94 are classified as major islands, being larger than , and cover a total area of .Arctic Archipelago
/ref> The islands of the archipelago over , in order of descending area, are: ^* NT = Northwest Territories, NU = Nunavut After Greenland, the archipelago is the world's largest high-Arctic land area. The climate of the islands is

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, N ...

, and the terrain consists of

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 mou ...

except in mountainous regions. Most of the islands are uninhabited; human settlement is extremely thin and scattered, being mainly coastal

settlements on the southern islands.

Map with links to islands

Islands not on map

* Beechey * Broughton (population: 593) *

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

(population: 1,396) * Duke of York * East Pen * Flaherty (population: 1,010) * Haig-Thomas * Hans * Herschel * Igloolik (population: 2,049) * Killiniq * Ottawa * Prince Leopold * Qikiqtaryuaq (formerly Jenny Lind Island) * Skraeling * Trodeley * Umingmalik (formerly Gateshead Island) *

Weston Weston may refer to: Places Australia * Weston, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Weston, New South Wales * Weston Creek, a residential district of Canberra * Weston Park, Canberra, a park Canada * Weston, Nova Scotia * ...

Communities

Populated islands

Of the more than 36,000 islands, only 11 are populated. Baffin Island, the largest, also has the largest population of 13,309. The population accounts for 67.37 per cent of the 19,355 people in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, 56.51 per cent of the population of the Arctic Archipelago, and 35.38 per cent of the population of Nunavut.

Mapping

* King Christian Island, * Borden Island, * Lougheed Island, * Brock Island, * Mackenzie King Island, * Helena Island, * Cameron Island, * Emerald Isle, * Prince Patrick Island, * Île Vanier, * Eglinton Island, * Alexander Island, * Bathurst Island, * Melville Island, * Byam Martin Island, * Banks Island, * Stefansson Island, * Russell Island, * Prince of Wales Island, * Prescott Island, * Somerset Island, * Victoria Island, * King William Island, * Matty Island, * Wales Island, * Belcher Islands, * Long Island, * Akimiski Island, * Charlton Island, * Ellesmere Island, * Meighen Island, * Axel Heiberg Island, * Ellef Ringnes Island, * Amund Ringnes Island, * Cornwall Island, * Graham Island, * North Kent Island, * Baillie-Hamilton Island, * Little Cornwallis Island, * Cornwallis Island, * Devon Island, * Bylot Island, * Baffin Island, * Jens Munk Island, * Koch Island, * Bray Island, * Rowley Island, * Foley Island, * Air Force Island, * Prince Charles Island, * Vansittart Island, * White Island, * Southampton Island, * Resolution Island, * Loks Land Island, * Akpatok Island, * Big Island, * Salisbury Island, * Nottingham Island, * Mansel Island, * Coats Island, * Beechey Island, * Broughton Island, * Dorset Island, * Duke of York Archipelago, * East Pen Island, * Flaherty Island, * Haig-Thomas Island, * Hans Island, * Herschel Island, * Igloolik Island, * Killiniq Island, * Ottawa Islands, * Prince Leopold Island, * Jenny Lind Island, * Skraeling Island, * Trodely Island, * Gateshead Island, * Weston Island,