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Baffin Bay

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Baffin Bay

via Wikipedia: Baffin Bay · see source

Baffin Bay is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located between Baffin Island and Greenland.[1] The bay is mostly ice-covered and not navigable for most of the year.[2] Via the Davis Strait, Baffin Bay reaches the Atlantic Ocean, and through Nares Strait, it connects to the Arctic Ocean.[1][2]

Geography and history

Currents in the bay form a cyclonic circulation, with the West Greenland Current flowing north and the Baffin Island Current flowing south.[3] The area has been inhabited since around AD 1200, when Thule peoples replaced earlier Dorset settlers.[4] Coastal areas of the bay have depths under 1000 m, while a central basin, the Baffin Basin, reaches a maximum depth of 2136 m.[3] Storms are frequent in this Arctic climate; average January temperatures vary from -20 °C in southern parts to -28 °C in northern parts.[5]

During winter, continuous ice, floating ice, and fast ice cover 80 percent of the bay's surface.[6] The first European known to have entered the bay was English explorer John Davis, who arrived there in 1585.[4] A 7.3 magnitude earthquake, the largest known north of the Arctic Circle, had its epicenter in Baffin Bay in 1933.[7][8]

What the cited sources add

The 1933 Baffin Bay earthquake was the largest instrumentally recorded earthquake along the eastern continental margin of North America.[8] The latest moderate earthquake in the region was a magnitude 5.1 event on April 15, 2010.[8][7] William Baffin reached a latitude of 77° 30' in Baffin Bay in 1616, the farthest north reached by any navigator for two hundred years.[9] The North Water polynya has existed for at least 9,000 years and was first described by William Baffin in 1616.[10]

A 1980 study by Kerwin J. Finley and Wayne E. Renaud describes marine mammals inhabiting the North Water in winter.[11][12] That study notes that all aquatic mammals depend on open water and are vulnerable to polar bear attacks when breathing at holes.[12][11] Since 1933, five earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or greater have taken place in this region.[8]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Baffin Bay" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Baffin Bay . Wissenladen.de. Retrieved on 2013-03-22.; "Den grønlandske Lods – Geodatastyrelsen"; ; "Limits of Oceans and Seas, 3rd edition", International Hydrographic Organization, 1953; Baffin Bay , Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian); Baffin Bay, Encyclopædia Britannica on-line; Reddy, "Descriptive Physical Oceanography", Taylor & Francis, 2001, p. 8 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Baffin Bay" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Circulation and generation of the North Water Polynya, Northern Baffin Bay. (PDF). Retrieved on 2013-03-22. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Baffin Bay" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Baffin Bay , Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian) (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Baffin Bay" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: John Davis, Encyclopædia Britannica on-line (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Baffin Bay" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Baffin Bay, Encyclopædia Britannica on-line (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Baffin Bay" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Baffin Bay , Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian); National Geospatial-intelligence Agency, "Prostar Sailing Directions 2005 Greenland and Iceland Enroute", ProStar Publications, January 2005, p. 73 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Baffin Bay" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: The 1933 Baffin Bay earthquake (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. The 1933 Baffin Bay earthquake. facts only, no text reused. earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca
  9. W. S. Wallace, "Discovery and Exploration of Canada", The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, pp. 307–310.. facts only, no text reused. web.archive.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Baffin Bay" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: National Geospatial-intelligence Agency, "Prostar Sailing Directions 2005 Greenland and Iceland Enroute", ProStar Publications, January 2005, p. 73; "Sea-surface conditions in northernmost Baffin Bay during the Holocene: palynological evidence", Journal of Quaternary Science, 2001, p. 353 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Kerwin J. Finley, "Marine Mammals Inhabiting the Baffin Bay North Water in Winter", ARCTIC (1980), doi:10.14430/arctic2592. OpenAlex metadata CC0; paper not read. doi.org
  12. Wikipedia, "Baffin Bay" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Marine Mammals Inhabiting the Baffin Bay North Water in Winter", Arctic, 1980, p. 724–738 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Baffin Bay (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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International Hydrographic Organization

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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