Ellesmere Island

Ellesmere Island, island in Nunavut, northern Canada, in the Arctic Ocean. Located off the north-western coast of Greenland, Ellesmere Island forms part of the Arctic Archipelago. Its northern tip, Cape Columbia, is the most northerly point of North America. The island, about 740 km (460 mi) long and 483 km (300 mi) wide, is mountainous, with some peaks in the United States Range reaching more than 2,740 m (9,000 ft). With an area of 196,236 sq km (75,767 sq mi) Ellesmere is the tenth largest island in the world. Many fiords indent the eastern and western coasts of the island. In 1988 the extreme north of the island was proclaimed the Ellesmere Island National Park Reserve; the region was renamed the Quttinirpaaq National Park in 1999. With an area of 37,775 sq km (14,585 sq mi), Quttinirpaaq is Canada's second-largest national park, with landscape features including sedimentary mountain ranges, ice caps, glaciers, fiords, and fertile thermal oases.

Some regions of Ellesmere Island receive only about 2.5 cm (1 in) of precipitation each year. As a result the island has little vegetation. Much of its surface lies under glacial ice cap. Herds of caribou and musk ox roam some of the ice-free regions of the island. Human habitation is very sparse, with only a few scattered communities. One of these communities, Alert, a radio and weather station maintained by Canada and the United States, is the northernmost settlement in the world (82° 30' North). Ellesmere Island was sighted by the English navigator William Baffin in 1616.