Baffin Island: Field Research and High Arctic Adventure, 1961-1967 ...

• Main Author: Ives, Jack D.
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: University of Calgary Press 2016
• Subjects: Arctic; Baffin Island; Baffin
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/prism/34618; https://prism.ucalgary.ca/handle/1880/51093

A geographer with extensive research experience in the Canadian North, Jack D. Ives has written a lively and informative account of several expeditions to Baffin Island during the "golden age" of federal research. In the 1960s, scientists from the Geographical Branch of Canada's Department of Energy, Mines, and Resources travelled to Baffin to study glacial geomorphology and glaciology. Their fieldwork resulted in vastly increased knowledge of the Far North-from its ice caps and glaciers to its lichens and microfossils. Drawing from the recollections of his Baffin colleagues as well as from his own memories, Ives takes readers on a remarkable adventure, describing the day-to-day experiences of the field teams in the context of both contemporary Arctic research and bureaucratic decision making. Along the way, his narrative illustrates the role played by the Cold War-era Distant Early Warning Line and other northern infrastructure, the crucial importance of his pioneering aerial photography, the unpredictable ...