Belcher Islands

The Belcher (English Belcher Islands, French Îles Belcher ) are an archipelago in the southeast of Hudson Bay in Canada, north of the James Bay. Politically they belong to the territory of Nunavut.

Overall, the archipelago covers an area of 13,000 km ², of which 2,900 km ² land area. He was discovered in 1610 by the English navigator Henry Hudson and later by Sir Edward Belcher, a polar explorer and commander of an expedition to the Arctic, named.

The islands consist of 1.64 to 2.34 Milliarden year-old sedimentary rocks. You rise up above the sea only a few meters. Your strange, band-like form was created by the disappearance of less resistant rock in the sea, so that only the harder part has received over the water.

Main island is the 1585 km ² large Flaherty Iceland. Is the settlement Sanikiluaq, Nunavut's most southerly village on the north coast of Flaherty Iceland. Other major islands in the comprehensive total of 1,500 islands archipelago are Kugong Iceland, Iceland Moore, Tukarak Iceland, Innetallong Iceland, Iceland Wiegand, Split Iceland, Iceland Snape and Mavor Iceland.

The Belcher Islands can be divided into four groups:

• North Belcher Islands, main islands: Johnson Iceland, Iceland Laddie, Split Iceland
• Baker 's Dozen Islands, about 50 islands
• East Belcher Islands, 15 islands
• Flaherty Islands, about 300 islands