Devon Island - Definition and Overview

Devon Island

Devon Island is the second-largest of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, Nunavut, Canada. The largest uninhabited island on Earth, Devon Island comprises over 55 000 km² of Precambrian gneiss and Paleozoic siltstones and shales. Because of its relatively high elevation and its extreme northern latitude, it is virtually devoid of large life, and supports only a meagre population of muskoxen and small birds and mammals; the island does support hypolith communities. Temperatures during the brief (40 to 55 day) growing season seldom exceed 10°C, and in winter can plunge to as low as -50°C. With a polar desert ecology, Devon Island receives very little precipitation.

Devon Island is also notable for the presence of the Haughton impact crater, created some 23 million years ago when a meteorite some 2 kilometres in diameter crashed into what were then forests. The impact left a crater approximately 20 kilometres in diameter, which is now a lake.

Devon Island region

Because of the extreme climate conditions which exist and the presence of the Haughton crater, Devon Island is the temporary home for five scientists and two journalists beginning in 2004 July, who will use the Marslike environment to simulate living and working on the Red Planet. The MARS (Mars Arctic Research Station) project entered its third season in 2004. A complementary program, the NASA HMP (Haughton Mars Project) is conducting geological, hydrological, botanical, and microbiological studies in this harsh environment, and entered its eighth field season the same year.