I just thought this was a cool image and description that I came across on FB. It's a well-done collage of three drone photos of the sun's progression in just over two hours of daylight from sunrise to sunset. The town of three thousand people will soon experience 59 days of polar night.
For some reason, I just thought the photo was worth sharing, and now I am adding a map and a few other images that I have found online. I guess this is the ex-geography teacher in me rearing its bald, pedagogical head.
Inuvik in the territory of Nunavut is way up there, inside the Arctic Circle at 68.3°N, on the Mackenzie Delta leading into the Arctic Ocean.
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| The Igloo Church |
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| Community Greenhouse: the most northerly greenhouse in North America |
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| Utilidor by the Igloo Church |
They can't really dig into the permafrost, so water supply and sewage removal comes and goes through above-ground utilidors. By the way, their utilidor system needs to be replaced at a projected cost of $80 million.
That being true about the permafrost, I am not sure how the cemetery functions in Inuvik because there is one, and it looks like a traditional one from the picture although I can't tell for sure..
I once had a dream that I lived on a cottage on the edge of the Arctic Ocean. It was very pleasant in my dream, but I have never been inclined to try it out for some reason.
They must be hardly souls to live there. I'm not sure I could cope without sunlight.
ReplyDeleteThe lack of daylight for that extended period would do me in. Great post though, AC.
ReplyDeleteI think the dream might be more pleasant than the reality!
ReplyDeleteFascinating. Liked the combined drone photo showing how little light they now get. Many years ago when I was a HUD government bureaucrat I traveled to Alaska and visited a site HUD was funding above the Arctic Circle. It was September and the sun was lower there than I had ever experienced. But now that I write that it must have been almost equal for day and night. Why do I remember the sun being low?
ReplyDeleteWhen you think about it, the sun's angle can never be very high in the Arctic. Roughly speaking, due to latitude, the sun can only be about 50° high at most.
DeleteThat's a great graphic showing the long night in that part of the world. Wow!
ReplyDeleteThat is a cool shot.
ReplyDeleteMy cousin spent two stints in Antarctica years ago. She said the experience was amazing. I don't think it was in the winter though.
I think it would be interesting just once to spend some time in a place like that.
I would not fare well there. Not just the lack of light but the starkness of it all.
ReplyDeleteHow intriguing...would love to know how the burials work too. All of this was interesting, and I delved into your map. Would you believe I've never seen that view of our world? And yet Canadians probably had it in their classrooms. I love the geographer doing his thing!
ReplyDeleteThis is something I have been thinking about recently, due to so many photos on Facebook by people who live in the far north. I like the shorter days we have now, but could not handle their environment and darkness.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how they light those greenhouses during such lack of sunlight?
Geography teacher, teach away! I love this stuff. Very nearly changed my college major to geography. Sometimes I wish I had.
Oooh, the first picture makes me cold just looking at it. I love that greenhouse, I imagine it feels like a sanctuary to the area!
ReplyDeleteThe 'highway' that runs north from Dawson to Inuvik is called the Dempster Highway. I have driven it twice, in 1973 and 1976. In 73 it wasn't completed yet, and one had to carry enough gas to go and get back. I drove up around 250 miles... through the Blackstone mountains out onto the treeless tundra. Fished, took photographs, and saw not one other person in 5 days.
ReplyDeleteI can hardly imagine. I felt small enough in northwestern Ontario, but not seeing anyone for 5 days just about blows my mind. Thanks for sharing that.
DeleteThat is such a short day. I don't think I would handle it well.
ReplyDeleteYikes! It would be like living on another, and not very hospitable, planet.
ReplyDeleteSo incredible to see the sun moving horizontally!
ReplyDeleteIt does seem like another planet and certainly a unique culture and way of life. I couldn't adjust but many people do.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter once applied for a job with Nunavut Arctic College. It was astounding to me that she'd consider such a cold climate. In the end, she chose to work in Afghanistan. That was even tougher to take.
ReplyDeleteThat's very cool! When I was little I lived in Fairbanks, Alaska for 5 years. I remember it being dark most of the day, and when the sun came up, it just kind of peeked over the horizon for a few hours, scooted along, then set again. So much dark. Fairbanks isn't as far north as Inuvik, and it isn't in the Arctic Circle. We went up late last summer and revisited, which was pretty cool. The University of Fairbanks has a cool photo of the winter solstice taken quite a few years ago, I have a picture on my blog, here: https://jellyjules.com/friday-thoughts-2/
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