Hudson Bay: description, location and history of the study

Today we will talk about the Hudson Bay. It is part of the Arctic Ocean and also adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean.

Geographical position

Hudson Bay on the map is not at all difficult to find. It is enough to know where Canada is located. Hudson Bay is washed by the coasts of four provinces of this country - Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and Nunavut. The bay is connected with the Labrador Sea through the Hudson Strait, and with the Arctic Ocean - via the Bay of Fox. Its water area has an area of 1.23 million square kilometers, and the average depth is 100 meters, sometimes reaching 300 meters. Considering Hudson Bay on the map, it is possible to distinguish several of the largest islands located in its waters: Southampton, Mansel, Cotes, Salisbury, Nottingham and others. A number of rivers flow into the bay: Churchill, Theron, Severn, Nelson, Hayes, Winisk and others.

Hudson Bay: description

Thanks to the fresh rivers flowing into the bay, the salinity of its surface waters is only 27 ppm (by comparison, this figure in the Arctic Ocean is at 34 ppm). The Arctic cold waters of the Hudson circulate in a counter-clockwise direction. The height of the tide in the west of the bay often reaches eight meters, in the north it is four or six meters, and in the east it does not exceed a couple of meters. The flat and sandy bottom of the water area is a classical shelf, that is, a continental platform filled with water.

Coast

With the location of the Hudson Bay, we have figured out, now we propose to find out what the coast is. It should immediately be noted that its landscape is very diverse. So, in the north between the towns of Churchill and Inukjuak, the fjord, dominated by a large number of bays and bays deep-cutting deep into the land, predominates, the shore. The southern part of the coastline is leveled and refers to the abrasion type with estuaries and estuaries. As for the James Bay, it is surrounded by very dangerous for ships denudation landslide-screey coast.

Origin

Its modern view of the Gulf of Hudson Bay was obtained thanks to huge glaciers, under the weight of which the part of the mainland in the northeast has strongly bent. After they melted, which happened about eight thousand years ago, the vacant place turned out to be a flooded ocean. As a result of the fact that this process lasted a very long time, it led to the formation of large strata-accumulative plains. The only exception is the Ungava Peninsula, located in the north-east of the bay, which is a plateau.

Climate

Practically the entire Hudson Bay, with the exception of its southern part, is located in the permafrost zone and is characterized by tundra soils and outcropping ice islands. In the south the peat bogs were spread out. Hudson Bay belongs to the arctic and subarctic desert areas of the Subpolar, passing into the tundra. And only James Bay is in the temperate continental climate zone.

The average temperature in January here is minus 30 degrees Celsius, and in July, plus 10 degrees. This climate zone has the following feature: on the northwestern part of the continent, an area of high pressure forms, and in the North Atlantic - a cyclone, as a result, throughout the winter over the Hudson Bay reigns the strongest ice winds.

History

The first of the European navigators caught in the Hudson Bay was Sebastian Cabot. It happened during the 1506-1509 expedition headed by him, whose goal was to find a passage to India. A hundred years later, in 1610, an English navigator named Henry Hudson visited the east coast of the bay , after which this part of the water area was later named. Two years later, the expedition, led by Thomas Button, explored the western shore of the bay. Then the Nelson River was discovered and a number of other geographical objects were discovered. A colossal research work was conducted by Thomas James in 1931. His name was later named the south-eastern part of the bay. At the same time, the expedition of Lula Fox was also here. Beginning in 1670, the Hudson Bay itself, as well as the surrounding area, began to be surveyed and developed by the Hudson's Bay Company. This corporation today is one of the oldest and largest in the world.

An interesting fact about the Hudson Bay

Scientists who conducted in 1960, the study of the gravitational field of the Earth, came to the unexpected conclusion that gravity is not the same on our entire planet. It turned out that there are places where its level is lower, in particular, not far from the coast of Hudson's Bay. In this regard, we can say with confidence that this geographical object is the most unique in all senses of this word.