CEN project

Informations: Station des Forces canadiennes Alert (Île d’Ellesmere, Nunavut)/Canadian Forces Station Alert (Ellesmere Island, Nunavut)
 

Canadian Forces Station Alert in the polar desert landscape (22 July 2020). Photo credit: Kevin Rawlings

Measurement site

  Latitude : 82.4989
  Longitude : -62.3399
  Altitude (m) :

Site location

   
The study area (ca. 170 km2) surrounds Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert and is located on the north-eastern tip of Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada. It is roughly delimited by the Lincoln Sea to the north and the boundaries of CFS Alert property in other directions.

Site description

   
The local topography consists of rugged and undulating terrain with mountains (to a maximum height of 525 m a.s.l.), hills, valleys, and creeks. The surficial deposit ranges from 2.4 to 4 m thick and is mostly composed of till (sandy clay loam) and shattered rock filled with ice. The permafrost is >600 m thick. The underlying bedrock is highly calcareous, composed of argillite with greywacke in some places. The uplands are mostly mesic, xeric, or barren, and consist mainly of boulder, frost-shattered rock, gravel, and polygonal nets of till, with low vegetation cover growing inside soil interstices. In the lowlands, where some soil moisture accumulates, a more continuous vegetation cover develops, consisting primarily of grasses and sedges.