Devon Island

Devon Island is the second-largest of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, Nunavut, Canada. The largest uninhabited island on Earth, Devon Island comprises over 55 000 km2 of Precambrian gneiss and Paleozoic siltstones and shales. Because of its relatively high elevation and its extreme northern latitude, it is virtually devoid of large life, and supports only a meagre population of musk oxen and small birds and mammals; the island does support hypolith communities. Temperatures during the brief (40 to 55 day) growing season seldom exceed 10°C, and in winter can plunge to as low as -50°C. With a polar desert ecology, Devon Island receives very little precipitation.

Related Topics:
Queen Elizabeth Islands - Nunavut - Canada - Earth - Precambrian - Gneiss - Paleozoic - Siltstone - Shale - Musk ox - Hypolith - Desert

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Devon Island is also notable for the presence of the Haughton impact crater, created some 23 million years ago when a meteorite some 2 kilometres in diameter crashed into what were then forests. The impact left a crater approximately 20 kilometres in diameter, which is now a lake.

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