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2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06
Today we will talk about Hudson Bay. It is part of the Arctic Ocean and is also adjacent to the Atlantic.
Geographic location
Hudson Bay on the map is not difficult to find. It is enough to know where Canada is located. Hudson Bay washes the shores of four provinces of this country - Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and Nunavut. The bay is connected to the Labrador Sea through the Hudson Strait, and to the Arctic Ocean through Fox Bay. Its water area has an area of 1.23 million square kilometers, and the average depth is 100 meters, sometimes reaching 300 meters. Looking at the Hudson Bay on the map, one can distinguish several of the largest islands located in its waters: Southampton, Mansel, Coates, Salisbury, Nottingham and others. A number of rivers also flow into the bay: Churchill, Theron, Severn, Nelson, Hayes, Winisk and others.
Hudson Bay: Description
Thanks to fresh rivers flowing into the bay, the salinity of its surface waters is only 27 ppm (for comparison, this figure in the Arctic Ocean is at 34 ppm). Arctic cold waters of the Hudsoncirculate in a counterclockwise direction. The height of the tide in the west of the bay often reaches eight meters, in the north it is four to six meters, and in the east it does not exceed a couple of meters. The flat and sandy bottom of the water area is a classic shelf, that is, a continental platform filled with water.
Coast
We figured out where the Hudson Bay is located, now we offer to find out what its coast is like. It should immediately be noted that its landscape is very diverse. So, in the north, between the cities of Churchill and Inukjuak, the fiord coast prevails, characterized by a large number of elongated bays and bays deeply cutting into the land. The southern part of the coastline is leveled and belongs to the abrasion type with estuaries and estuaries. As for James Bay, it is surrounded by landslide-scree shores that are very dangerous for ships.
Origin
The waters of Hudson Bay received their modern look thanks to huge glaciers, under the weight of which part of the mainland in the northeast strongly caved in. After they melted, which happened about eight thousand years ago, the vacant place was flooded by the ocean. As a result of the fact that this process lasted for a very long time, it led to the formation of large reservoir-accumulative plains. The only exception is the Ungava Peninsula, located in the northeast of the bay, which is a plateau.
Climate
Practically the entire Hudson Bay, beyondwith the exception of its southern part, is located in the permafrost zone and is characterized by tundra soils and ice islands that go outside. In the south, there are peat bogs. The Hudson Bay belongs to the zone of arctic and subarctic deserts of the Arctic, turning into the tundra. And only James Bay is in the temperate continental climate zone.
The average temperature here in January is minus 30 degrees Celsius, and in July plus 10 degrees. This climatic zone has the following feature: an area of high pressure is formed in the northwestern part of the mainland, and a cyclone is formed in the North Atlantic, as a result, strong icy winds reign over Hudson Bay throughout the winter.
History
The first of the European sailors who found themselves in the Hudson Bay was Sebastian Cabot. This happened during the expedition of 1506-1509 headed by him, the purpose of which was to search for a passage to India. A full hundred years later, in 1610, an English navigator named Henry Hudson visited the east coast of the bay, after whom this part of the water area was subsequently named. Two years later, an expedition led by Thomas Button explored the western shore of the bay. Then the Nelson River and a number of other geographical objects were discovered. A colossal research work was also carried out by Thomas James in 1931. The southeastern part of the bay was later named after him. At the same time, the Lyul Fox expedition also visited here. Beginning in 1670, Hudson Bay itself, as well asthe area adjacent to it began to be explored and developed by the Hudson's Bay Company. This corporation today is one of the oldest and largest in the world.
Fun fact about Hudson Bay
Scientists conducting a study of the Earth's gravitational field in 1960 came to the unexpected conclusion that gravity is not the same throughout our planet. It turned out that there are places where its level is lower, in particular, not far from the coast of Hudson Bay. In this regard, we can say with confidence that this geographical feature is unique in every sense of the word.
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