Baffin Bay - History

History

In 1585, British explorer, John Davis, was the first recorded European to enter the bay. Later, between 1612 and 1616, William Baffin made five expeditions to the Arctic; together with Robert Bylot, he reached and explored the Baffin Bay in 1616. He also proved that no Northwest Passage was in the Hudson Bay area. The reports by Baffin and Bylot were questioned in England and in 1818, the bay was "rediscovered" by John Ross. More advanced scientific studies followed in 1928, in the 1930s and after World War II by Danish, American and Canadian expeditions.

The northern coast of area of the bay was occupied by the Dorset (500 BC – 1200 AD) and then Thule and Inuit people. Currently, there are a few Inuit settlements on the Canadian coast of the bay, including Arctic Bay (population 690), Pond Inlet (1,315) and Clyde River (820). Those settlements are accessed and supplied by air and annual sealifts. In 1975, a town was built at Nanisivik to support lead and zinc production at the Nanisivik Mine – the first Canadian mine in the Arctic. The mine was permanently closed in 2002 due to declining resources and metal prices. Whereas the town still has an operational seaport and an airport, as of the Canada 2006 Census, it has a population of zero.

Baffin Bay was the epicenter of a 7.3 magnitude earthquake in 1933. This is the largest known earthquake north of the Arctic Circle. It caused no damage because of its offshore location and the small number of the nearby onshore communities. The northwestern part of the bay remains one of the most seismically active regions in eastern Canada, and with five earthquakes of magnitude 6 have occurred here since 1933. The latest strong earthquake occurred on 15 April 2010 and had the magnitude of 5.1.