Rivière aux Mélèzes

Rivière aux Mélèzes and confluence with Rivière You Gué

Catchment area of ​​the Riviére Koksoak

Rivière aux Mélèzes (French for " larch River "; , in English also Larch River, in the Inuit language Kuuvik ) is a river in the region of Nunavik in the Canadian province of Québec.

It drains the western part of the basin of the Rivière Koksoak. The other major tributary of the Rivière Koksoak is the Rivière Caniapiscau.

The river name probably derives from the existence of larch trees in the protected river valleys of the Rivière aux Mélèzes, while the landscape corresponds to that of a less protected locations across the northern treeline.

The catchment area of the river is largely uninhabited tundra. Thanks to the strong glaciation during the last ice age, the area is mostly flat with slight elevations above sea level. The climate is polar, with temperatures of -20 ° C in January and 8 ° C in July.

The river flowed probably before the Pleistocene to Hudson Bay. While 90 percent of the Quaternary was Nunavik covered by an up to 4 km thick glacier layer. Ice dams and moraines prevented during the short ice-free periods can run off in the west, so that the flow to the Rivière Koksoak was diverted.