Davis Strait

Davis Strait (known in Danish as Davisstrædet and in Inuktitut as ᕿᑭᖅᑖᓘᑉ ᐃᑭᖓ, or Qikiqtaaluup Ikinga) is a southern branch of the Arctic Ocean, located north of the Labrador Sea. It separates mid-western Greenland from Baffin Island in Nunavut, Canada, with Baffin Bay lying to its north. The strait takes its name from English explorer John Davis (1550–1605), who navigated the area while searching for a Northwest Passage route; by the 1650s, it had become a whaling ground.

The International Hydrographic Organization sets the strait’s boundaries as follows: to the north, the southern limit of Baffin Bay (the 70° North parallel between Greenland and Baffin Island); to the east, Greenland’s southwest coast; to the south, the 60° North parallel between Greenland and Labrador; and to the west, the eastern limit of the Northwestern Passages south of 70° North (the east coast of Baffin Island to its southeastern tip, East Bluff) and of Hudson Strait (a line from East Bluff to Point Meridian on Lower Savage Islands, then along the coast to its southwestern extreme, across to the western extreme of Resolution Island, along its southwestern shore to Hatton Headland, and then to Cape Chidley, Labrador).

Geologically, the strait sits atop complex buried grabens and ridges formed by strike-slip faulting along the Ungava Fault Zone during the Paleogene, roughly 45 to 62 million years ago. This faulting transferred plate-tectonic movements from the Labrador Sea to Baffin Bay. Davis Strait is the widest strait in the world. Its water depth ranges from 1,000 to 2,000 meters, making it considerably shallower than the Labrador Sea to the south.

The strait is notorious for its fierce tides, which can reach 30 to 60 feet—a challenge that discouraged early explorers and troubled whaling ships during the age of sail. According to the United States Geological Survey, at least 13% of the world’s undiscovered oil and 30% of undiscovered gas lie in the Arctic, with seas around Greenland likely holding large natural gas reserves and smaller amounts of crude oil and natural gas liquids. This has led Greenland’s minister and provincial council to offer numerous offshore concessions for hydrocarbon extraction. The largest concession areas are in seas west of Greenland, mainly Davis Strait and Baffin Bay, with smaller ones in the Greenland Sea to the east.