Earth scars

June 16, 2013

The website World Geography has published a listing of 12 ‘earth scars’. Interestingly one quarter of them are located north of 56- two diamond mines and the Pingualuit Crater.

• The Pingualuit Crater (Inuktitut: “where the land rises”) is located in the Ungava Peninsula of Quebec, Canada. It is 3.44 km (2.14 mi) in diameter. The crater is exposed to the surface, rising 160 m (520 ft) above the surrounding tundra and is 400 m (1,300 ft) deep. A 267 m (876 ft) deep Pingualuk Lake fills the depression, and is one of the deepest lakes in North America. The lake also holds some of the purest fresh water in the world. The lake has no inlets or apparent outlets, so the water accumulates solely from rain and snow and is only lost through evaporation. In terms of transparency, it is one of most transparent lakes in the world, with Secchi disk visible more than 35 m (115 ft) deep.
• The Diavik Diamond Mine is a diamond mine in the North Slave Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada, about 300 kilometres (190 mi) north of Yellowknife. It has become an important part of the regional economy, employing 700, grossing C$100 million in sales, and producing approximately 7.5 million carats (1,500 kg (3,300 lb)) of diamonds annually.
• The Ekati Diamond Mine (“Ekati”) is Canada’s first surface and underground diamond mine. It is located 310 km (190 mi) north-east of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, and about 200 km (120 mi) south of the Arctic circle, near Lac de Gras.Between 1998 and 2009, the mine has produced 40 million carats (8,000 kg or 17,637 lb) of diamonds out of six open pits. As the high grade ore close to surface was depleted, development was completed to access the ore utilizing underground methods.

The Pingualuit Crater is located in a Park in Nunavik (northernmost Quebec). For countless generations Inuit have referred to this place as pingualuit, a term that is testimony to this people’s meticulous attention to visual detail. Pingualuit, or pimples in English, fittingly describes the jagged crest of the crater silhouetted against the omnipresent Arctic sky. An interpretation centre in the community of Kangiqsujuaq presents the park’s natural environment and the region’s Inuit culture. In short, the Parc national des Pingualuit offers truly adventurous travellers an unparalleled opportunity to explore the lands and legends of another time.

Commentary

The Pingualuit Crater is a unique tourist attraction for sure. It is inaccessible and remote with a short viewing season. If you want to visit this unique crater you will be one of only a handful of visitors each year to do so.

Sources

• a)http://www.theworldgeography.com/2013/06/earth-scars.html



• b)http://www.nunavikparks.ca/en/parks/pingualuit/