Prince Patrick Island

Prince Patrick Island, 15 848 km², is the farthest west of Canada's Arctic Queen Elizabeth Islands. Topographically, it is a low-elevation, dissected plateau that rises gently from an exceptionally low coast to a maximum elevation in the southeast of only 200 m. It lies within the Sverdrup Basin geological structure and consists of thick beds of Upper Devonian deposits, dipping at a shallow angle to the southwest. During the Tertiary, the island was uplifted and faulting occurred. The area is still seismically active, and tectonic movement along the faults appears at surface as fissures and small scarps. A thin strip of sand and gravel deposits of nonglacial origin was laid down along the island's Arctic Ocean coastline during the early Pleistocene. The island was named for Prince Arthur William Patrick, duke of Connaught, governor general 1911-16.