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Borderlands / Arctic Coastal Plain
The Arctic Coastal Plain includes the coastal terrain along the shores of the Arctic Ocean from Meighen Island to Alaska. It is divided into three subregions, each of which has distinctive physiographic characteristics:
- The Island Coastal Plain extends from Meighen Island to Banks Island, sometimes characterized by hilly terrain that carries an ice cap and sometimes by a low, flat, uniform landscape or by low hills;
- The Mackenzie Delta includes not only the delta of the present river but remnants of earlier deltas and features built by the deposition of a mix of sediments coming from the river and from the sea. A multitude of lakes and channels cover the Mackenzie Delta plain and, in the older parts, pingos form the most outstanding features of the landscape;
- The Yukon Coastal Plain, which lies at a higher altitude than the Mackenzie Delta, appears to be largely an erosion surface cut into bedrock and mantled by a thin veneer of recent sediments.
The following photographs show examples of the landscape of the Arctic Coastal Plain.
[D]
Click for larger version, 232 KB
Prince Patrick Island, Northwest Territories
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Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories
The other physiographic regions that form the Borderlands are:
![[D]](http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/environment/land/physio_prince_patrick.jpg/image_longdesc_view){kind=link}
![[D]](http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/environment/land/physio_tuktoyaktuk.jpg/image_longdesc_view){kind=link}
