Bylot Sound

The Bylot Sound is a sound in the North Star Bay, Avannaata municipality, northwest Greenland.[1]

Bylot Sound
A view of Saunders Island with the Bylot Sound on the left and Wolstenholme Island in the background
Bylot Sound is located in Greenland
Bylot Sound
Bylot Sound
LocationGreenland; between Saunders Island and the mainland
Coordinates76°24′51″N 69°44′46″W
Part ofArctic Ocean
Ocean/sea sourcesBaffin Bay
Basin countriesGreenland
Max. length37 km (23 mi)
Max. width16 km (9.9 mi)
FrozenMost of the year
IslandsSaunders Island and Wolstenholme Island
SettlementsNarsaarsuk

Geography

This channel separates Saunders Island and Wolstenholme Island from the Greenland mainland.[2] Its minimum width is 6 km (3.7 mi), between Wolstenholme Island and Cape Atholl, the mainland point at its southeastern end. There is a tombolo named Uummannaq on the mainland shore at the eastern end of the sound by the former settlement of Pituffik.[3]

View of the tombolo known as Uummannaq and as 'Dundas Mountain'.

History

This strait was named after 17th-century English navigator Robert Bylot, who led two expeditions to find the Northwest Passage.

In the winter of 1849–1850 under Commander James Saunders of HMS North Star got frozen-in in the sound during an Arctic expedition to search and resupply Captain Sir James Clark Ross' venture, who in turn had sailed in 1848 trying to locate the whereabouts of Sir John Franklin's expedition.[4] While his ship was trapped by ice Commander Saunders named numerous landmarks in that area.[5]

In 1968 a B-52 bomber carrying four thermonuclear bombs crashed in the ice of the Bylot Sound spreading contaminated material over the whole sector.[2]

The abandoned Inuit settlements of Narsaarsuk and Pituffik were located on the shores of the sound. Pituffik Space Base is currently the only inhabited place in the area.

References
  1. GoogleEarth
  2. Nielsen, Sven P. & Dahlgaard, Henning. "Plutonium in the environment at Thule, Greenland, from sampling in 2003" (PDF). Radiation Research Department, Risø National Laboratory. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
  3. "Bylot Sound, Greenland". geographic.org. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
  4. "Icy Imprisonment: The 1849 Voyage of the HMS North Star". beyondthebackyard.com. 3 September 2014. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
  5. The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle. London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co. 1850. p. 588.
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