Portal:Arctic/Selected article

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Selected articles list

Portal:Arctic/Selected article/1

S. A. Andrée and Knut Frænkel with the crashed balloon on the pack ice, photographed by the third expedition member, Nils Strindberg. The exposed film for this photograph and others from the failed 1897 expedition was recovered in 1930.

S. A. Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897 was an ill-fated effort to reach the North Pole in which all three expedition members perished. S. A. Andrée (1854–97), the first Swedish balloonist, proposed a voyage by hydrogen balloon from Svalbard to either Russia or Canada, which was to pass, with luck, straight over the North Pole on the way. The scheme was received with patriotic enthusiasm in Sweden, a northern nation that had fallen behind in the race for the North Pole.

Andrée neglected many early signs of the dangers associated with his balloon plan. Being able to steer the balloon to some extent was essential for a safe journey, and there was plenty of evidence that the drag-rope steering technique he had invented was ineffective; yet he staked the fate of the expedition on drag ropes. Worse, the polar balloon Örnen (Eagle) was delivered directly to Svalbard from its manufacturer in Paris without being tested; when measurements showed it to be leaking more than expected, Andrée refused to acknowledge the alarming implications of this. Most modern students of the expedition see Andrée's optimism, faith in the power of technology, and disregard for the forces of nature as the main factors in the series of events that led to his death and the deaths of his two companions Nils Strindberg (1872–97) and Knut Frænkel (1870–97).

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Portal:Arctic/Selected article/2

Franklin's lost expedition was a doomed British voyage of Arctic exploration led by Captain Sir John Franklin that departed England in 1845. A Royal Navy officer and experienced explorer, Franklin had served on three previous Arctic expeditions, the latter two as commanding officer. His fourth and last, undertaken when he was 59, was meant to traverse the last unnavigated section of the Northwest Passage. The entire expedition complement, Franklin and 128 men, died of causes natural and unnatural after their ships became icebound in Victoria Strait near King William Island in the Canadian Arctic.

Pressed by Franklin's wife and others, the Admiralty launched a search for the missing expedition in 1848. Prompted in part by Franklin's fame and the Admiralty's offer of a finder's reward, many subsequent expeditions joined the hunt, which at one point in 1850 involved eleven British and two American ships. Several of these ships converged off the east coast of Beechey Island, where the first relics of the expedition were found, including the graves of three crewmen. In 1854, explorer John Rae, while surveying near the Canadian Arctic coast southeast of King William Island, acquired relics of and stories about the Franklin party from the Inuit. A search led by Francis Leopold McClintock in 1859 discovered a note left on King William Island with details about the expedition's fate. Searches continued through much of the 19th century.

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Portal:Arctic/Selected article/3 The walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the Odobenidae family and Odobenus genus. It is subdivided into three subspecies: the Atlantic Walrus (O. rosmarus rosmarus) found in the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Walrus (O. rosmarus divergens) found in the Pacific Ocean, and O. rosmarus laptevi, found in the Laptev Sea.

The walrus is immediately recognizable due to its prominent tusks, whiskers and great bulk. Adult Pacific males can weigh up to 4,500 lb (2,000 kg), and, among pinnipeds, are exceeded in size only by the two species of elephant seals. It resides primarily in shallow oceanic shelf habitat, spending a significant proportion of its life on sea ice in pursuit of its preferred diet of benthic bivalve mollusks. It is a relatively long-lived, social animal and is considered a keystone species in Arctic marine ecosystems.

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Portal:Arctic/Selected article/4

The Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea) is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae. This bird has a circumpolar distribution, breeding colonially in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and North America (as far south as Brittany and Massachusetts). The species is strongly migratory, seeing two summers each year as it migrates from its northern breeding grounds to the oceans around Antarctica and back (about 24,000 miles) each year. This is the longest regular migration by any known animal.

Arctic Terns are medium-sized birds. They have a length of 33–39 centimetres (13–15 in) and a wingspan of 76–85 centimetres (30–33 in). They are mainly grey and white plumaged, with a red beak (as long as the head, straight, with pronounced gonys) and feet, white forehead, a black nape and crown (streaked white), and white cheeks. The grey mantle is 305 mm, and the scapulars are fringed brown, some tipped white. The upper wing is grey with a white leading edge, and the collar is completely white, as is the rump. The deeply forked tail is whitish, with grey outer webs. The hindcrown to the ear-coverts is black.

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Portal:Arctic/Selected article/5

The history of Greenland, the world's largest island, is the history of life under extreme Arctic conditions: an ice cap covers about 95 percent of the island, largely restricting human activity to the coasts.

The first humans are thought to have arrived around 2500 BC. This group apparently died out and were succeeded by several other groups migrating from continental North America. To Europeans, Greenland was unknown until the 10th century, when Icelandic Vikings settled on the southwestern coast. This part of Greenland was apparently unpopulated at the time when the Vikings arrived; the direct ancestors of the modern Inuit Greenlanders are not thought to have arrived until around 1200 AD from the northwest. The Norse settlements along the southwestern coast eventually disappeared after about 500 years. The Inuit thrived in the icy world of the Little Ice Age and were the only inhabitants of the island for several centuries. Denmark-Norway nonetheless claimed the territory, and, after centuries of no contact between the Norse Greenlanders and their Scandinavian brethren, it was feared that the Greenlanders had lapsed back into paganism; so a missionary expedition was sent out to reinstate Christianity in 1721. However, since none of the lost Norse Greenlanders were found, Denmark-Norway instead proceeded to baptize the local Inuit Greenlanders and develop trading colonies along the coast as part of its aspirations as a colonial power. Colonial privileges were retained, such as trade monopoly.

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Portal:Arctic/Selected article/6

The Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus), also known simply as the Peregrine, and historically as the "Duck Hawk" in North America, is a cosmopolitan bird of prey in the family Falconidae. It is a large, crow-sized falcon, with a blue-gray back, barred white underparts, and a black head and "moustache". As with other bird-eating raptors, the female is bigger than the male. Authorities recognize 17–19 subspecies, which vary in appearance and range; there is disagreement over whether the distinctive Barbary Falcon is a subspecies or a distinct species.

The Peregrine's breeding range includes land regions from the Arctic tundra to the Tropics. It can be found nearly everywhere on Earth, excepting extreme polar regions, very high mountains, and most tropical rainforests; the only major ice-free landmass from which it is entirely absent is New Zealand. This makes it the world's most widespread bird of prey. Both the English and scientific names of this species mean "wandering falcon", referring to the migratory habits of many northern populations.

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Portal:Arctic/Selected article/7

Sami immigrant children

The Sami people are the indigenous people of northern Europe inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. Their ancestral lands span across an area the size of Sweden in the Nordic countries. The Sami people are among the largest indigenous groups in Europe. Their languages are the Sami languages, which are classified as Finno-Ugric.

The cultural assimilation over many years of the Sami people in the four countries makes it difficult to estimate the numbers of Sami. However, the population is estimated to be between 80,000 and 100,000. The Norwegian state recognizes any Norwegian as Sami if he or she has one great-grandparent whose home language was Sami, but there is not, and has not been, any registration of the home language spoken by Norwegian people. Roughly half of all Sami live in Norway, but many live in Sweden as well. Finland and Russia are also home to smaller groups located in the far north. The Sami in Russia were forced by the Soviet authorities to relocate to a collective called Lovozero/Lujávri, in the central part of the Kola Peninsula.

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Portal:Arctic/Selected article/8

The Orca or Killer Whale (Orcinus orca), less commonly, Blackfish or Seawolf, is the largest species of the oceanic dolphin family. It is found in all the world's oceans, from the frigid Arctic and Antarctic regions to warm, tropical seas.

Orca are versatile and opportunistic predators. Some populations feed mostly on fish, and other populations hunt marine mammals, including sea lions, seals, and even large whales. There are up to five distinct Orca types, some of which may be separate races, subspecies or even species. Orcas are highly social; some populations are composed of matrilineal family groups which are the most stable of any animal species. The sophisticated social behaviour, hunting techniques, and vocal behaviour of Orcas have been described as manifestations of culture.

Although Orcas are not an endangered species, some local populations are considered threatened or endangered due to pollution, depletion of prey species, conflicts with fishing activities and vessels, habitat loss, and whaling. Wild Orcas are usually not considered a threat to humans. There have, however, been isolated reports of captive Orcas attacking their handlers at marine theme parks.

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Portal:Arctic/Selected article/9 Right whales are baleen whales belonging to the genus Eubalaena. Four right whale species are recognised in this genus.

Sometimes the family Balaenidae is considered to be the family of right whales. Bowhead Whale, which has its own genus, Balaena also belongs to the Balaenidae family, and so is sometimes considered a right whale. However, this article focuses on the Eubalaena species.

Right whales can grow up to 18 m (60 ft) long and weigh up to 100 tons. Their rotund bodies are mostly black, with distinctive callosities (roughened patches of skin) on their heads. They are called "right whales" because whalers thought the whales were the "right" ones to hunt, as they float when killed and often swim within sight of the shore. Populations were vastly reduced by intensive harvesting during the active years of the whaling industry. Today, instead of hunting them, people often watch these acrobatic whales for pleasure.

The four Balaenidae species live in distinct locations. Approximate population figures:

• 300 North Atlantic Right Whales live in the North Atlantic;
• 200 North Pacific Right Whales live in the North Pacific;
• 7,500 Southern Right Whales are spread throughout the southern part of the Southern Hemisphere;
• 8,000–9,200 Bowhead Whales are distributed entirely in the Arctic Ocean.

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Portal:Arctic/Selected article/10

Tundra in Greenland

In physical geography, tundra is an area where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term "tundra" comes from Kildin Sami tūndâr 'uplands, tundra, treeless mountain tract'. There are two types of tundra: Arctic tundra (which also occurs in Antarctica), and alpine tundra. In tundra, the vegetation is composed of dwarf shrubs, sedges and grasses, mosses, and lichens. Scattered trees grow in some tundra. The ecotone (or ecological boundary region) between the tundra and the forest is known as the tree line or timberline.

Arctic tundra occurs in the far Northern Hemisphere, north of the taiga belt.The word "tundra" usually refers only to the areas where the subsoil is permafrost, or permanently frozen soil. (It may also refer to the treeless plain in general, so that northern Sápmi would be included.) Permafrost tundra includes vast areas of northern Russia and Canada . The polar tundra is home to several peoples who are mostly nomadic reindeer herders, such as the Nganasan and Nenets in the permafrost area (and the Sami in Sápmi).

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Portal:Arctic/Selected article/11

Climate of the Arctic

The Climate of the Arctic is characterized broadly by long, cold winters and short, cool summers. There is a large amount of variability in climate across the Arctic, but all regions experience extremes of solar radiation in both summer and winter. Some parts of the Arctic are covered by ice (sea ice, glacial ice, or snow) year-round, and nearly all parts of the Arctic experience long periods with some form of ice on the surface. Average January temperatures range from about −40 to 0 °C (−40 to +32 °F), and winter temperatures can drop below −50 °C (−58 °F) over large parts of the Arctic. Average July temperatures range from about −10 to +10 °C (14 to 50 °F), with some land areas occasionally exceeding 30 °C (86 °F) in summer.

The Arctic consists of ocean that is nearly surrounded by land. As such, the climate of much of the Arctic is moderated by the ocean water, which can never have a temperature below −2 °C (28 °F). In winter, this relatively warm water keeps the North Pole from being the coldest place in the Northern Hemisphere, and it is also part of the reason that Antarctica is so much colder than the Arctic. In summer, the presence of the near-by water keeps coastal areas from warming as much as they might otherwise, just as it does in temperate regions with maritime climates.

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Nominations

Feel free to add Arctic related FA, A GA high importance articles to the above list. Other articles may be nominated here. Please add your vote, support, comment or oppose and your reasons.

Humpback Whale

• Comment: Humpback Whale is a feature article about a whale found in oceans and waters around the world SriMesh | talk 04:42, 24 August 2008 (UTC)

Polar bear

• Comment: B-class article about the classic example of Arctic wildlife. Carcharoth (talk) 01:47, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

Knut (polar bear)

• Comment: This is a featured article, Knut (polar bear), which presents one specific arctic polar bear which was born and raised in Germany.SriMesh | talk 01:53, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
  • Neutral (maybe put this in the "biographies" section?) - don't think this article has much to do with the Arctic. Will add Polar bear to the nominations. Carcharoth (talk) 01:42, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

Muskrat

• Comment: A Good article which is a mammal from the arctic/subarctic regions. SriMesh | talk 01:56, 24 August 2008 (UTC)

Transformers (film)

• Comment: Another Feature article, Transformers (film), which is fictional set in the Arctic Circle.SriMesh | talk 02:07, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
  • Oppose - we really want stuff set completely in the Arctic. See Category:Arctic in fiction and Category:Culture of the Arctic for more relevant stuff. Carcharoth (talk) 01:45, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

Sea Otter

• Comment: Another Feature article, Sea Otter, seems to have a habitat south of the arctic circle. However the article does talk of a historic range further north.SriMesh | talk 02:07, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Barn Swallow

• Comment: this article, Barn Swallow, has been rated as a feature article, and has been tagged as belonging to the Faroe Islands which are arctic / subarctic in ecology.SriMesh | talk 02:17, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Comment Along with the House martin this species reaches the absolute edge of its range in the absolute edge of the Arctic. Northern Raven, Peregrine Falcon and Arctic Tern are Arctic birds, but the otheres aren't. Sabine's Sunbird talk 19:43, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

House Martin

• Comment: this article, House Martin, has been rated as a feature article, and has been tagged as belonging to the Faroe Islands which are arctic / subarctic in ecology.SriMesh | talk 02:17, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Blackbird

• Comment: this article, Blackbird, has been rated as a feature article, and has been tagged as belonging to the Faroe Islands which are arctic / subarctic in ecology.SriMesh | talk 02:17, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Hooded Crow

• Comment: this article, Hooded Crow, has been rated as a good article, and has been tagged as belonging to the Faroe Islands which are arctic / subarctic in ecology.SriMesh | talk 02:17, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Raven

• Comment: this article, Raven, has been rated as a featured article, and has been tagged as belonging to the Faroe Islands, which are arctic / subarctic in ecology.SriMesh | talk 02:17, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Frog

• Comment: This featured article, Frog makes mention of the wood frog in the arctic. SriMesh | talk 02:24, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Medal of Honor

• Comment: This featured article, Medal of Honor mentions (Quote from the article) Even after World War I, Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett received the medal for exploration of the North Pole.SriMesh | talk 03:11, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
• Oppose - stretching here. Carcharoth (talk) 01:49, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

Jean Keene

• Comment the Good article, Jean Keene, talks about this activist who feed eagles in Homer, Alaska. Homer, Alaska hosted the Arctic winter games, so folks do think it is part of the arctic, though tis at the southerly point of Alaska. SriMesh | talk 03:11, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Comments

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