Devon Island is located in the Territory of Nunavut in Canada less than a thousand miles from the North Pole. Devon Island is also the largest uninhabited island on Earth, with a surface area of approximately 66,800 square kilometers.
While this remote island does have some musk oxen, small birds and mammals - and some plant life, in many places, there is almost no easily visible life at all. In those places, the surface looks very much like what our robots have seen on Mars. This is one of the reasons why many scientists and engineers find Devon Island a useful place to do research that will help us explore Mars (and the Moon) one day.
Image: Airborne synthetic aperture radar image of Haughton Crater. North is to the top and the crater is about 20 km wide. Note that the Haughton River breaches the crater rim to the northeast and flows into Thomas Lee Inlet.
Another reason space researchers are interested in Devon Island is that is has a large meteor crater - Haughton crater. Haughton crater is 40 kilometers across and was formed 39 million years ago when a large object perhaps a mile across slammed into Earth. The impact event dug a deep hole in the Earth's surface and exposed ancient rock layers. The crater that formed also held a lake for a long time, which has long since dried up. Studying this crater, and the effect it had upon the surrounding environment, may also help us plan to look for similar things on Mars.
Image: Haughton-Mars Project Research Station, 2005 . click for a full panorama
The scientific research project, which seeks to study this unique environment, is named the Haughton-Mars Project (HMP). The HMP began conducting research on Devon Island in 1996 and has established a research station just outside the northwest corner of Haughton crater at 75°22'N latitude and 89°41'W longitude.
Due to the extreme northern location of Devon Island, and the way the Earth is tilted with respect to the sun, Devon Island experiences periods of constant sunshine between late April and mid-August every year. During the winter months the sun rarely appears above the horizon. Indeed it is dark - all day - here for several months. During a short warm season in July temperatures may reach 10°C (50°F). However, in the winter, the temperature can drop as low -50°C (-58°F).
While the people who live in these portions of the world consider such conditions to be quite normal, many who visit from much further south find the constant sunshine and barren terrain to be like being on another world.
Image: looking out the window at the rock and ice as you fly over Devon Island.
The coast of Devon Island is covered with steep sea cliffs and deep glacial valleys and fjords carved by ice during the ice age which ended approximately 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. An ice cap is still to be found on the eastern third of Devon Island. The rest of Devon Island is a barren rocky surface with glacial valleys, melt water channels, and small lakes.
In addition to its physical characteristics, Devon Island is also very, very remote. The closest permanent community is Resolute Bay, which is located about an hour's ride by plane on nearby Cornwallis Island. After Resolute Bay, it takes many hours to reach the next closest community. This isolation is one of the most important things about living and working on Devon Island.
Image: research scientist in a concept spacesuit torso setting up a geophone.
Living and working on the Moon or Mars will require people to be very far from home for long periods of time. It takes a long time to get to Devon Island and a long time to get home. Learning to live in this isolation and conducting science in this remote location will help us better prepare for sending humans (and their tools) to other planets.
Taken together, the environment and the extreme isolation on Devon Island all combine to create a unique place that is very much like living on another planet. That is why we like to call this place "Mars on Earth".
Related links:
- Devon Island, Mars Institute
- Devon Island, Wikipedia
