Okay, so let's just jump right in. We are headed
way, way north today for this deep dive. We're
looking at one of the world's truly massive yet
somehow often overlooked landmasses, Victoria
Island. The moment you actually grasp the sheer
scale of this place, it just completely resets
your idea of what a remote island can even be.
It absolutely does. I mean, this isn't just a
big island. We're talking about the eighth largest
island in the entire world. For context, Victoria
Island is Canada's second largest island, and
it covers an enormous 217 ,291 square kilometers.
And here's where that context really hits you,
to give you a mental picture of that size. Victoria
Island is significantly larger than the entire
land. landmass of Great Britain. Right, which
is only about 209 ,000 square kilometers. Exactly.
So imagine fitting all of England, Scotland,
and Wales inside one single Canadian Arctic island.
That is just, it's immense. Yeah, and this colossal
landmass, it doesn't even have a single administrative
identity. It's sort of a geographical split personality.
It actually straddles the boundary between the
Northwest Territories, where the Western Third
is in the Inuvik region, and Nunavut, where the
bigger eastern part is in the Kidikmeat region.
So our mission today is to cut through all of
that and deliver the essential details about
this gigantic Arctic landmass specifically for
you. We'll get into everything from its curious
and frankly bizarre geography to its unique ecological
role and, well, the heavy international politics
that surround it. We want to make sure you're
well informed about a place most people couldn't
even point to on a map. We'll explore the history
of the people who call it home, the explorers
who struggled just to map its edges. And you
mentioned something bizarre. Oh, yeah. If you
want one fact that just defies logic right now,
the complexity of Victoria Island's coastline
and its internal lakes results in a geographic
feature that is the world's largest island within
an island within an island. Whoa. We will definitely
break down that dizzying puzzle when we get to
the geography section. Okay, that's the kind
of Russian doll geography that just melts my
brain. But before we get lost in all those map
layers, let's start with identity. The history.
the people, and how such a vast territory got
its European name in the first place. Well, the
naming is pretty typical of that 19th century
British influence in the Arctic. The island is
named after Queen Victoria, who was, you know,
the Canadian sovereign from 1867 to 1901. And
that's why you see other related names. Exactly.
It's why you see major features across the island,
like the huge Prince Albert Peninsula named after
her consort. That historical colonial overlay
is important for sure, but we have to talk about
its indigenous identity. It's far older and it
continues today. What is its name to the people
who truly belong there? Absolutely. The Inuanactin
name for the island is Kitlanek, and the local
India population who trace their habitation back
thousands of years, they're known as the Kitlanermiyat.
Kit Lane or Mitch. Yeah. And they're often historically
referred to as the copper idiot, which is a name
that came from their traditional use of local
copper deposits for tools. And the human presence
here, I mean, relative to the size of the island,
it's minuscule. Oh, unbelievably so. The 2021
census recorded a total population of just 2
,168 residents. For an island bigger than Great
Britain. Exactly. Yeah. And that population is
almost entirely concentrated in two major settlements,
which it reflects that administrative split we
mentioned earlier. Right. So the vast majority
of people, about 7 ,760 residents, they live
in Cambridge Bay or Iqaluitutiaq. That's on the
southeast coast, inside Nunavut. The smaller
community, Ulukaktuk, with a population of 408,
is on the far west coast in the Northwest Territories.
It's fascinating that the entire existence on
this massive island is basically centered around
two small, isolated points. You also mentioned
historical settlements, which that speaks to
a time before these permanent communities took
hold, right? Yes. Trading posts were key during
the height of the fur trade and early exploration,
but they were often temporary. Many were abandoned
as conditions changed. Fort Collinson is a good
example of an abandoned post. But the history
of habitation goes much, much deeper than that.
We're talking prehistory. We know the Thule culture,
the ancestors of the modern Inuit, had a robust
presence here. What kind of evidence do we have?
Well, one of the most compelling pieces of evidence
comes from the Wollaston Peninsula. Researchers
there found five prehistoric kamutic. The sleds,
right. The traditional sleds, exactly. And these
weren't just fragments. They were well -preserved
artifacts belonging to the Neo -Eskimo culture.
And the dating on those tells a remarkable story
about continuity, doesn't it? It really does.
They date back to between 1250 and 1573 AD. This
proves that copper Inuit ancestors were thriving
on that land for centuries before any European
had even sighted the coastline. That deep, sustained
history contrasts so sharply with the way the
Europeans approached the island. Let's shift
into the age of exploration. It wasn't a single
discovery, was it? Oh, absolutely not. It was
a centuries -long, piece -by -piece puzzle, which
really reflects how difficult it was to navigate
the Arctic sea ice and chart these coastlines
accurately. The first documented European sighting
was in 1826 by John Richardson, who only saw
the southwest coast and named his piece Wollaston
Land. So right away, we have a name, but no idea
it's connected to anything else. And that complexity
just got deeper 13 years later. That's right.
In 1839, Peter Warren Deese and Thomas Simpson
charted the southeast coast, and they independently
named their section Victoria Land. So by the
mid -19th century, navigators thought they were
looking at two separate places, Wollaston Land.
and Victoria Land. I can just imagine the confusion
on early nautical charts. What was the moment
when those two lands were finally connected?
That moment came in 1851, thanks to John Ray.
Ray was a fantastic Arctic traveler, and he successfully
charted the entire south coast. He proved conclusively
that Wollaston land and Victoria land were connected,
that they formed a single, massive island. Which
must have been so essential for the search parties
trying to find the lost Franklin expedition at
the time. And speaking search efforts, Robert
McClure played a huge role in charting the western
side around that same time. McClure's voyage
between 1850 and 1851 was instrumental. He managed
to circumnavigate Banks Island. which is directly
to the west, separating it definitively from
Victoria Island. And crucially, his crew also
charted the northwest and west coasts of Victoria
Island itself, essentially outlining the entire
western edge. So by 1851, we mostly know the
shape, but the charting continued well into the
20th century, which just shows how inaccessible
some of those northern and eastern fjords are.
Exactly. The eastern coast was mapped further
north in 1905 by Godfred Hansen, who was part
of Roald Amundsen's Gurea expedition. Then the
northeast corner was finally charted during William
R. Stephenson's massive Canadian Arctic expedition.
That's where Storker T. Storkerson comes in,
right? He charted the northeast coast in 1916
and 17 and ended up citing and lending his name
to the Storkerson Peninsula. So it took nearly
a century from 1826 to 1917 to fully map this
one island. It's an unbelievable amount of time
for one landmass. And the terrain is still so
challenging that feats of endurance continue
even today. I mean, think about that. 2008 track?
I wanted to ask about that. Clark Carter and
Chris Bray became the first recorded people to
walk across the island. The scale of that is
just daunting. It really is. It highlights the
sheer difficulty of the Arctic ground. You know,
a mix of tundra, ice, sometimes open water. They
actually completed the remaining 660 kilometers
of a much longer 1 ,000 -kilometer trek attempt
that had failed years before. It wasn't just
a hike. It was this grueling, protracted effort
to conquer that distance. It just shows how untamed
this island remains. I appreciate the resilience
required just to live there, let alone cross
it. So let's move to the physical landscape.
You mentioned its shape being described as a
stylized maple leaf, which is wonderfully fitting.
Yes, and that distinctive shape is because of
its heavily indented coastline. Geographically,
it's often called an island of peninsulas. You
look at a map and you see these three huge fingers
jutting out. The Storkerson Peninsula and the
vast Prince Albert Peninsula pointing north.
and the Wollaston Peninsula pointing west. And
it isn't just flat either. Where is the highest
point on this massive landmass? The high point
is the Shaler Mountains. They're located in the
north central region, and they reach about 655
meters, or 2 ,149 feet. They're a really significant
landmark in the Arctic archipelago. And internally,
the water features are just as massive. The largest
lake... Tahiriwak, formerly Ferguson Lake, is
in the southeast, near Cambridge Bay. That lake
alone is 562 square kilometers. That's nearly
the size of Singapore, just sitting in the middle
of this island. Yeah. But let's zoom out, because
the surrounding bodies of water are what tie
this remote geography directly to global politics.
Okay, let's list the key waterways. To the north,
you have Viscount Melville Sound. To the east,
McClintock Channel and Victoria Street. West,
the Emerson Gulf and Prince of Wales Street.
And then south, Dease Strait, Coronation Gulf,
and Dolphin and Union Strait. That list of names
is basically the blueprint for the Northwest
Passage. Exactly. And this is where the geopolitics
gets very hot. The Southern Waterways and sometimes
the Prince of Wales Strait are recognized parts
of the Northwest Passage. Canada claims these
are Canadian internal waters. When Canada says
internal waters, what does that practically mean?
It means they assert full and complete sovereignty
over those channels, just like they would over
a lake or a river completely inside their territory.
They argue that because these channels are historically
critical to Canada and often frozen over, they
aren't part of the international high seas. But
other nations, the US, various European powers,
they dispute that claim. What's their argument?
They argue that they should be classified as
either territorial or fully international waters.
Territorial waters allow for the right of innocent
passage for foreign vessels, meaning commercial
ships, and even naval vessels can pass through
freely if they aren't threatening security. And
if they were international, then there would
be unrestricted freedom of navigation for everyone.
So this gigantic, mostly empty island is a cornerstone
in a major global dispute over transit rights
and sovereignty, especially as climate change
opens up the passage. It puts the entire region
right on the world stage. But before we leave
geography, we promise to return to that mind
bending fact. The island within an island within
an island. How does Victoria Island pull this
nesting doll trick off? OK, walk me through this
layer by layer because it sounds like a riddle.
It's all about size and elevation changes. So
layer one, Victoria Island is obviously an island
in the Arctic Ocean. Layer two, it's so vast
that it contains massive lakes and also countless
smaller unnamed lakes. layer three within one
of those large internal lakes there is an island
so we have an island in a lake on victoria island
okay where does the fourth layer come from a
fourth layer is a small body of water like a
pond or a tarn that's located on that third layer
island and inside that pond is a tiny eyelid
Because Victoria Island hosts the largest known
structure of this kind globally, an unnamed lake
on an unnamed island in another unnamed lake,
it becomes this geographic marvel that is so
hard to picture. That is legitimately fascinating.
It proves that even in the seemingly empty vastness
of the Arctic, geometry can get extremely complicated.
Let's move to the environment. Climate and biology.
What defines life on Victoria Island? Life here
is defined by extremes. The climate is a cup
ET or a tundra. And what that means is the environment
is too cold to support tree growth. And critically,
no month has an average temperature that even
reaches 10 degrees Celsius. We're talking about
permafrost dominating the soil in extremely compressed
seasons. And the seasons are brutal. The winters
are long, dark, and frigid, with October being
notoriously the snowiest month. And the summers
are cool and rainy, but that warmth is just so
fleeting. And we have to talk about the sun cycles,
which dominate absolutely everything. Using Cambridge
Bay data as our benchmark, The polar night, when
the sun is continuously below the horizon, runs
from roughly November 30th to January 11th. Six
weeks of darkness. And the flip side is the midnight
sun. Right. The midnight sun, when the sun is
continuously above the horizon, runs from about
May 19th to July 22nd. And those long stretches
of darkness and light, they regulate the metabolic
cycles of all life on the island, especially
migrating animals. But I'm still stuck on the
temperature range. That's the clearest indicator
of the harshness. The variability is staggering.
The record high registered in Cambridge Bay is
a very warm 28 .9 degrees Celsius. That's at
84 Fahrenheit, which is truly anomalous. But
then you contrast that with the record low, which
plunges to minus 52 .8 Celsius or minus 63 Fahrenheit.
That vast swing shows the incredible adaptive
pressure on the local wildlife. What's the most
iconic example of fauna adapted to this? That
would have to be the dolphin union caribou herd,
locally known as island caribou. This herd is
endemic to Canada, and they have this rare migratory
behavior that makes them particularly vulnerable
to climate change. And that rare behavior is
the sea ice crossing, correct? Precisely. They
migrate from their summer grazing grounds on
Victoria Island to their winter grazing on the
mainland by crossing the Dolphin and Union Strait,
specifically using the sea ice as a bridge. This
migration across sea ice is highly unusual for
North American caribou. And not many others do
it. The only other population that does this
is the smaller Piri caribou, which also inhabits
Victoria Island. So if the sea ice forms later
or breaks up earlier, that migration corridor
just vanishes. That makes them incredibly fragile.
Extremely fragile. And that brings us to the
very base of their food web. the incredible lichen
flora. Lichens are truly the unsung heroes of
the Arctic ecosystem. They seem so small, but
they underpin everything. A survey in 2018 and
19 around Cambridge Bay revealed an astonishing
level of biodiversity. It documented 237 lichen
species. Yeah. And what was truly remarkable
was that 35 of those species had never been reported
from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago before.
It just shows how much we still have to learn.
Why is that biodiversity so essential? And how
does the geology of Victoria Island influence
it? The lichens are the major winter food source
for both muskox and caribou when everything else
is frozen or covered in snow. The distribution
of these lichens is governed by moisture and
the bedrock chemistry. The source material highlights
that the presence of lime -rich, till -so alkaline
soil with calcium around Cambridge Bay favors
what are called crustose communities. Those are
the hard, crusty lichens that stick right to
rocks. That's them. And those specific communities
are absolutely critical for sustaining the caribou
through the long, dark winter. It's a chain of
survival that links the largest mammal to the
slowest growing organism. Absolutely. So as the
Arctic warms, monitoring these specific lichen
communities is vital because their survival will
directly affect them. the health of the iconic
island caribou herds. So what does this all mean?
We've taken this deep dive into Victoria Island,
a landmass that completely redefines scale. Larger
than Great Britain, split between two Canadian
territories. With its indigenous name, Kitlinek,
we've seen how its mapping was this protracted
process of fragmented discovery that spanned
an entire century. giving rise to unique features
like the largest known island within an island
within an island. And we know that this polar
region forces life from the tiny lichen to the
massive migrating island caribou to adapt to
extremes, defining its unique and fragile ecology.
But here's where it gets really interesting and
something for you to think about. We established
that the waterways surrounding Victoria Island
are central to the Northwest Passage, a critical
choke point between East and West. Given the
massive historical effort it took merely to map
this island, and given that the waters are warming
and becoming more navigable, how should Canada
balance its deeply rooted claim of these channels
as internal waters with the growing global economic
and security pressure from nations who demand
innocent passage through this newly thawed route?
The legacy of exploration has transformed into
a future of... strategic geopolitics. Victoria
Island isn't just a physical giant, it's an indispensable
strategic piece on the global chessboard today.