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Nunavut's landscape tells the story of billions of years of geological history, from ancient Canadian Shield bedrock to features carved by recent ice ages. Permafrost underlies virtually the entire territory.
Nunavut covers 2.1 million km² — about a fifth of Canada — and its physical geography is dominated by ancient bedrock, ice and permafrost. These are the landforms that define the territory.
| Landform | What it is |
|---|---|
| Baffin Island | Canada’s largest island (about 507,000 km²) and the heart of the Qikiqtaaluk region. Its eastern coast is dominated by steep fjords and the mountains of the Arctic Cordillera, including Auyuittuq National Park. |
| Ellesmere Island | The northernmost of the Arctic islands, largely covered by ice caps and mountains. It contains Barbeau Peak (2,616 m), the highest point in Nunavut, and Canada’s northernmost civilian community, Grise Fiord. |
| Victoria Island | Canada’s second-largest island, shared with the Northwest Territories. Its Nunavut portion, around Cambridge Bay, is low-lying tundra plateau on the Canadian Shield. |
| Arctic Cordillera | The mountain chain running along the eastern edge of Baffin Island and Ellesmere Island, with peaks over 2,000 m and the only major glaciers and ice fields of eastern Arctic Canada. |
| Innuitian Mountains | The folded mountain system of the High Arctic (Ellesmere, Axel Heiberg and neighbouring islands), geologically distinct from the Shield and still carrying extensive ice caps. |
| Canadian Shield | Ancient Precambrian bedrock, 1–4 billion years old, underlying roughly 80% of the territory — the rolling rock, lakes and rivers of the mainland (Kivalliq and Kitikmeot) and much of Baffin Island. |
| Hudson Bay & Foxe Basin coasts | Shallow, productive seas that shape the Kivalliq coastline and Foxe Basin, home to belugas, walrus and major seabird colonies, and the setting for communities such as Arviat, Whale Cove and Chesterfield Inlet. |
| Nettilling Lake | Nunavut’s largest lake (roughly 5,000 km²) on southern Baffin Island, draining through Amadjuak Lake toward Foxe Basin — part of a vast post-glacial lake system. |
| Fjords & glacial valleys | More than 100 fjords cut into Baffin Island alone, carved by ice sheets that retreated about 10,000 years ago; thousands of glacial lakes dot the mainland. |
Ground that remains frozen for at least two consecutive years
Ancient Precambrian bedrock—among the oldest on Earth
Landforms shaped by ice sheets that retreated 10,000 years ago
Permafrost is ground that remains at or below 0°C for at least two consecutive years. In Nunavut, continuous permafrost underlies the entire territory, with depths ranging from a few meters in the south to over 600 meters in the High Arctic.
Above the permafrost lies the "active layer"—soil that thaws each summer and refreezes in winter. This thin layer, typically 30-100 cm deep, supports all plant life and creates challenges for construction and infrastructure.
Permafrost creates distinctive landforms that are actively studied as indicators of climate change. These features are unique to Arctic and subarctic regions.
Ice-cored hills that form when water freezes and expands under the permafrost surface, pushing up the ground into dome-shaped mounds. Can reach 50m in height.
Where found: Common in Mackenzie Delta region, present in western Nunavut
Geometric patterns of cracks in the ground surface created by repeated freezing and thawing cycles. Ice wedges form in the cracks over thousands of years.
Where found: Widespread across Nunavut tundra
Irregular, hummocky terrain and lakes formed when ice-rich permafrost thaws and the ground subsides. An indicator of climate change.
Where found: Increasing across the Arctic due to warming
Peat mounds with a permanently frozen core, typically 1-7m high. They form in wetland areas where peat insulates ice beneath.
Where found: Southern Nunavut and transition zones
Climate change is causing permafrost to thaw at unprecedented rates. According to research published in Nature Climate Change, permafrost temperatures have increased by 0.3-0.4°C per decade since the 1980s.
The major landforms are the Canadian Shield (about 80% of the territory), the Arctic Cordillera and Innuitian Mountains in the east and High Arctic, the large Arctic islands (Baffin, Ellesmere, Victoria), glacial fjords and lakes, and the Hudson Bay and Foxe Basin coastlines. Continuous permafrost underlies virtually all of it.
Nunavut is known for its treeless tundra, fjord-cut coastlines, ice caps on Baffin and Ellesmere islands, permafrost features such as pingos and polygonal ground, and extremes of scale: 2.1 million km² of land with no roads between communities.
Yes. The Arctic Cordillera runs along eastern Baffin Island, and the Innuitian Mountains cover parts of the High Arctic. Nunavut’s highest summit is Barbeau Peak on Ellesmere Island at 2,616 m. The mainland, by contrast, is low-lying Canadian Shield and tundra plain.
Permafrost is found wherever ground stays at or below 0°C for two or more years. In Canada it underlies roughly half of the country’s land, and in Nunavut it is continuous — essentially every part of the territory, from the surface down.
It ranges from a metre or less at the southern edge of the permafrost zone to hundreds of metres in the Arctic. In Nunavut, permafrost extends from a few metres deep in the far south to more than 600 m thick in the High Arctic.