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Introduction

The northern coast of Canada is roughly 172,950 km long, within the Arctic (Shaw et al. 1998). The Arctic is marked by extremely cold winters and year-round freezing air temperatures that are together responsible for widespread permafrost and glaciers as well as the seasonal and perennial occurrence of sea ice and snow. The Arctic is also the traditional home for roughly 45,000 Inuit, the only indigenous population residing in 35 coastal communities.

The aim of this discussion is to describe the nature and pattern of the northern coastline of Canada from Battle Harbour in Labrador (Labrador Sea) to Demarcation Point at the Yukon–Alaska border (Beaufort Sea), including the Arctic Archipelago, Ungava Bay, Hudson Bay and the northern mainland. A modified version of Owens’ (1994) regional coastal framework is used to subdivide this region into 11 coastal zones (Fig. 2.6.1 ). These zones reflect physiographic patterns linked mainly to bedrock geology and location, from...

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Pollard, W. (2010). Northern Canada. In: Bird, E.C.F. (eds) Encyclopedia of the World's Coastal Landforms. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8639-7_24

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