Lake Hazen
Canada · Americas
About
Lake Hazen is a freshwater lake in the northern part of Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada, north of the Arctic Circle.
It is the largest lake north of the Arctic Circle by volume. By surface area it is third largest, after Lake Taymyr in Russia and Lake Inari in Finland.
The area around the lake is a thermal oasis within a polar desert, with summer temperatures up to 20 °C (68 °F).
The lake itself is covered by ice about ten months a year. It is fed by glaciers (most importantly Henrietta Nesmith and the Gilmour Glaciers) from the surrounding Eureka Uplands—Palaeozoic rocks north of the lake, rising up to 2,500 m (8,200 ft) above sea level—and drained by the 15 km-long (9.3 mi) Ruggles River, which flows into Chandler Fjord on the northern east coast of Ellesmere Land. The lake is flanked by the Arctic Cordillera.
The lake is 74 km (46 mi) long and up to 12 km (7 mi) wide, with an area of 537.5 km2 (207.5 sq mi). It stretches in a southwest–northeast direction from 81°40′N 72°58′W to 81°56′N 68°55′W. The lake is up to 269 m (883 ft) deep and has an estimated volume of 51.4 km3. The shoreline is 185 km (115 mi) long and 158 m (518 ft) above sea level.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.