Sunday, March 18, 2012

Nunavut Territory, Canada


Nunavut, in northern Canada, is the largest and newest federal territory of the country. The name means "our land" in Inuktitut, given to the territory in 1999. With a population of about 33,000 and an area about the size of Western Europe, Nunavut is the largest and least populous of the provinces in Canada. The land is mostly flat as a result of the actions of the large ice sheet that completely covered the land tens of thousands of years ago. The evidence of this past glaciation is apparent in the thousands of lakes gouged out of the land surface. In the summer the lakes each harbor different biota, and have varying amounts of sediments; hence the great variety of colors seen. The image was acquired July 18, 2001, covers an area of 58 x 59 km, and is located at 67 degrees north latitude, 97.6 degrees west longitude.

Photo credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

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