Great Bear Lake
Large glacial lake in Northwest Territories, Canada / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Great Bear Lake (Slave: Sahtú; French: Grand lac de l'Ours) is a lake in the boreal forest of Canada. It is the largest lake entirely in Canada (Lake Superior and Lake Huron are larger but straddle the Canada–US border), the fourth-largest in North America, and the eighth-largest in the world.[5] The lake is in the Northwest Territories, on the Arctic Circle between 65 and 67 degrees of northern latitude and between 118 and 123 degrees western longitude, 156 m (512 ft) above sea level.
Great Bear Lake | |
---|---|
Location | Northwest Territories |
Coordinates | 65°50′01″N 120°45′06″W[1] |
Lake type | Glacial |
Primary outflows | Great Bear River |
Catchment area | 114,717 km2 (44,292 sq mi)[3][4] |
Basin countries | Canada |
Surface area | 31,153 km2 (12,028 sq mi)[3][4] |
Average depth | 71.7 m (235 ft)[3][4] |
Max. depth | 446 m (1,463 ft)[3][4] |
Water volume | 2,234 km3 (536 cu mi)[3][4] |
Residence time | 124 years[3] |
Shore length1 | 2,719 km (1,690 mi) (plus 824 km (512 mi) island shoreline)[3][4] |
Surface elevation | 156 m (512 ft) |
Frozen | November - July[4] |
Islands | 26 main islands, totalling 759.3 km2 (293.2 sq mi) in area[3] |
Settlements | Délı̨nę |
References | [3][4] |
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure. |
The name originated from the Chipewyan word satudene, meaning "grizzly bear-water people". The Sahtu, a Dene people, are named after the lake. Grizzly Bear Mountain, or Sahoyue, on the shore of the lake also comes from Chipewyan, meaning "bear-large hill".[6][7]
Sahoyue (Grizzly Bear Mountain), a peninsula on the south side of the lake, and Edacho (Scented Grass Hills), another peninsula on the west side, form the Saoyú-ʔehdacho National Historic Site of Canada.[8][9]