Submerged drainage patterns in Barrow Strait, Canadian Arctic

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences
• Main Authors: Bornhold, Brian D., Finlayson, Nancy M., Monahan, David
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1976
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Arctic; Canadian Arctic Archipelago; Devon Island; Somerset Island; Barrow Strait; Peel Sound; Wellington Channel; Arctic Archipelago
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/e76-032; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/e76-032

Recent detailed bathymetric maps of Barrow Strait enabled a reconsideration of the Tertiary fluvial erosion model used to account for the physiography of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Five distinct drainage basins were distinguished within Barrow Strait, including both dendritic and rectangular drainage patterns. The latter were controlled by normal faults along the Precambrian–Paleozoic contact in Peel Sound and Barrow Strait.Several changes in the original model are proposed, including the placement of the main east–west drainage divide through Somerset Island and across Barrow Strait and southern Wellington Channel to Devon Island.