Prince Patrick Island
- Terra MODIS
- 01 August 2006
- 03:15 UTC
Situated at the southwestern corner
of the Queen Elizabeth Islands group, Prince Patrick Island is the westernmost island of the Arctic Archipelago. The island is
located 23 km across the Fitzwilliam Strait from the northwestern peninsulas of Melville Island (at
bottom-right corner of the above image). Also found within this channel is Eglinton Island, dividing the
Fitzwilliam Strait into the Crozier Channel (on the west) and the Kellet Strait (on the east). Eglinton Island (at bottom-edge of
image) lies 23.5 km southeast from Prince Patrick Island's Cape Frederick. To the south, 145 km across the wide McClure Strait, is
the large low Arctic island of Banks Island; to the northwest are the islands of the Prime Minister Group
— MacKenzie King Island, Borden Island and Brock
Island. The island's western side faces a near-perpetually frozen region of the Arctic Ocean. The island's southwestern extremity
marks the northern limit of the Beaufort Sea.
Prince Patrick Island measures 240 km in length and up to 108 km in width covering an area of 15,848 km². Its southern and eastern coasts are marked by a series of broad peninsulas that are divided by wide inlets: (from north to south) Jameson Bay, Intrepid Inlet, Walker Inlet and Dyer Bay. They rise from low-lying coastal belts or in low, but steep, slopes and cliffs and contain the island's highest and hilliest terrain, reaching a height of nearly 260 m above sea level in the southwest. From the elevated eastern fringes of the island, the interior slopes gradually downwards through a featureless landscape to the low-lying western coasts. Many of the braided river channels found in this area are easily picked out in the above image.
image: MODIS rapid response project at nasa/goddard space flight center.
