Devon Island

Devon Island is the second-largest of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, Nunavut, Canada. The largest uninhabited island on Earth, Devon Island comprises over 55 000 km² of Precambrian gneiss and Paleozoic siltstones and shales. Because of its relatively high elevation and its extreme northern latitude, it is virtually devoid of large life, and supports only a meagre population of muskoxen and small birds and mammals; the island does support hypolith communities. Temperatures during the brief (40 to 55 day) growing season seldom exceed 10°C, and in winter can plunge to as low as -50°C. With a polar desert ecology, Devon Island receives very little precipitation.

Devon Island is also notable for the presence of the Haughton impact crater, created some 23 million years ago when a meteorite some 2 kilometres in diameter crashed into what were then forests. The impact left a crater approximately 20 kilometres in diameter, which is now a lake.

Devon Island region

History

An outpost was established at Dundas Harbour (74°31'N 82°30'W) in August 1924 as part of a government presence intended to curb foreign whaling and other activity. The outpost was leased to Hudson's Bay Company in 1933.

The collapse of fur prices and the need to cut relief expenses led to the dispersal of 53 Baffin Island Inuit families on the island in 1934. It was considered a disaster due to wind conditions and the much colder climate, and the Inuit chose to leave in 1936. Dundas Harbour was populated again in the late 1940s to maintain a patrol presence, but it was closed again in 1951 due to ice difficulties.

In July 2004 Devon Island became the temporary home for five scientists and two journalists, who were to use the Marslike environment to simulate living and working on the Red Planet. The MARS (Mars Arctic Research Station) project entered its third season in 2004. A complementary program, the NASA HMP (Haughton Mars Project) is conducting geological, hydrological, botanical, and microbiological studies in this harsh environment, and entered its eighth field season the same year.

Only ruins of a few buildings remain at Dundas Harbour today.

References

• NASA Haughton-Mars project