Qamanirjuaq Lake

Infobox_lake
lake_name = Qamanirjuaq Lake
image_lake =
caption_lake =
image_bathymetry =
caption_bathymetry =
location = Kivalliq Region, Nunavut
coords = coord|63|00|00|N|95|45|00|W|region:CA_type:waterbody|display=inline,title
type =
inflow =Ferguson River
outflow =Ferguson River at
Parker Lake South
catchment =
basin_countries = Canada
length =
width =
area = 932 km²
depth =
max-depth =
volume =
residence_time =
shore =
elevation = convert|92|m|ft|0|sp=us|abbr=on|lk=on
islands =several (unnamed)
cities =convert|146|km|mi|0|abbr=on|lk=on S of Baker Lake;
convert|200|km|mi|0|abbr=on|lk=on W of Rankin Inlet

Qamanirjuaq Lake, meaning "huge lake adjoining a river at both ends", and spelled "Kaminuriak Lake" on some maps, [cite journal |url=http://www.polarbearalley.com/Assets/pages10-11.pdf |title=History & Culture - Qamanirjuwhat? |last=Eliasson |first=Kelsey |publisher=Hudson Bay Post |location=Churchill, Manitoba |date=October, 2007 |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=10–11 |accessdate=2008-02-12] ("ka-min-YOO-ree-ak") is the first of several named lakes on the eastward flow of the Ferguson River, in the eastern barrenlands of Kivalliq Region, Nunavut. It lies about convert|1|mi|km|0 downstream from Ferguson Lake, the source of the Ferguson River, and adjacent upstream to Parker Lake South. Qamanirjuaq Lake is within the northern Hearne Domain, Western Churchill province of the Churchill craton, northwest section of the Canadian Shield in northern Canada.

The Ferguson River passes through a series of rapids before entering the western arm of Qamanirjuaq Lake. Canadian Arctic explorer, Joseph Burr Tyrrell, described the lake in his Geological Survey of Canada 1894 canoe expedition report::"Kaminuriak Lake is a beautiful sheet of clear cold water lying in the till-covered plain... Where seen, the beach is in some places sandy, but more generally of large boulders, which, on the more exposed parts of the shore are arranged in a regular wall to the height of from eight to twelve feet, while in the bays they are scattered over a shallow floor of sand or till. Back from the lake the country stretches in wide treeless plains, or rises in low grassy hills, which show no signs of any underlying rock... Following the south shore of Kaminuriak Lake to its southeastern angle, the river was again reached... now a much larger stream, sixty yards wide and two feet deep." [cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=hyVMAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA141&lpg=RA1-PA141&dq=%22kaminuriak+lake%22+eskimo&source=web&ots=Eb_I7Kz40B&sig=LC0sts9YeGF_fpkJ36gNux1-v7M#PRA1-PA141,M1 |title=Annual Report (New Series). |author=Geological Survey ofCanada |publisher=S.E. Dawson |location=Ottawa |date=1898 |pages=I-XVI 1885-1904, 141-142 |format=Google Book Search pdf |oclc=67403742 |accessdate=2008-02-14]

The lake is irregularly shaped with several inlets and unnamed islands, in a permafrost area of north-northwest ice flow, north of the tree line [cite web |url=http://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/surf/kivalliq/relative_e.php |title=Glacial erosion of bedrock and ice flow history in the Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, Canada |last=McMartin |first=Isabelle |coauthors=Penny J. Henderson |publisher=Geological Survey of Canada |date=2007-12-10 |accessdate=2008-02-12] This habitat is hospitable to Qamanirjuaq barren-ground caribou, the namesake of the lake, who consider the area surrounding the lake as their traditional calving grounds, returning annually after traveling an inconsistent, unpredictable convert|500|mi|km|0 range through Manitoba/Nunavut, northeastern Saskatchewan, and southeastern Northwest Territories. The herd, a keystone species, has been safeguarded by the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board since 1982. [cite web |url=http://www.arctic-caribou.com/ |title=Welcome to the website of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board |publisher=arctic-caribou.com |date=2008-02-13 |accessdate=2008-02-14]

In the mid 1970s, a fishery was moved from Kaminak Lake (which proved to have unacceptably high levels of Mercury), to Qamanirjuaq Lake which showed no elevated Mercury levels. The lake is filled with lake whitefish and lake trout for commercial fishing, and is also home to "Lasallia pensylvanica" Arctic lichen, sphagnum, bryophytes, and a few dwarf birch. [cite web |url=http://www.isgs.uiuc.edu/shilts/shilts-0097.shtml
title=Shallow 'cave' with local ritual significance in highly folded orthoquartzite of Hurwitz Formation |author=William W. Shilts Geologic Image Gallery |publisher=isgs.uiuc.edu |date=2007-08-28 |accessdate=2008-02-12] [cite web |url=http://www.canlii.org/ca/regu/crc847/part214326.html |title=Species, mesh sizes, closed seasons and quotas for commercial fishing |publisher=CanLII |accessdate=2008-02-12] [cite journal |title=Data on the Biology of Lake Whitefish and Lake Trout from Kaminuriak Lake, District of Keewatin, N.W.T. (Northwest Territories) |last=Bond |first=W.A. |publisher="Fishery Management Division, Resource Management Branch" |location=Winnipeg |format=Data report series: Resource Management Branch, Central Region |volume=CEN/D-75 |issue=4 |date=1975 |oclc=149113369 |accessdate=2008-02-14] [cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=LDeK1AEcRj4C&pg=PA244&lpg=PA244&dq=%22kaminuriak+lake%22&source=web&ots=dBN2tSS2AS&sig=IXcLDiLTn70Ug9m4uCqLF-HnNls |title=American Arctic Lichens |last=Thomson |first=John Walter |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York City |date=1984 |pages=1:244 |format=Google Book Search pdf |isbn=0231058888 |accessdate=2008-02-12] [cite journal |url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0007-2745(196724)70%3A4%3C432%3ASSOTTR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-H |title=Sphagnum species of the Thelon River and Kaminuriak Lake regions, Northwest Territories |last=Holmen |first=Kjeld |coauthors=George Wilby Scotter |publisher="The Bryologist" |volume=70 |issue=4 |pages=432–437 |date=Winter, 1967 |oclc=70617839 |doi=10.2307/3240785 |accessdate=2008-02-14 |issn=0007-2745 |month=Dec |year=1967 |journal=The Bryologist] [cite journal |url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0007-2745(196622)69%3A2%3C246%3ABOTTRA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-K |title=Bryophytes of the Thelon River and Kaminuriak Lake Regions, N.W.T. |last=Scotter |first=George Wilby |publisher="The Bryologist" |volume=69 |issue=2 |pages=246–248 |date=Summer, 1966 |oclc=35248574 |doi=10.2307/3240521 |accessdate=2008-02-14 |issn=0007-2745 |month=Oct |year=1966 |journal=The Bryologist]

The Ahimaa Cave (Inuktitut: "are you other?" or "are you other being?"), once inhabited by Inuit, is hollowed out of Qamanirjuaq Lake's massive cliff. [cite news |url=http://npc.nunavut.ca/eng/news/99fall/story5.html |title=The stories behind Inuktitut placenames |publisher=Nunavut Planning Commission |date=Fall, 1999 |accessdate=2008-02-12]

References

External links

* [http://www.arctic-caribou.com/range_map.html Map of Qamanirjuaq Lake and Qamanirjuaq caribou herd range]