Information AboutGreat Bear Lake |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT GREAT BEAR LAKE | |
| lakes of the northwest territories | |
| SHOPPER'S DELIGHT | |
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Great Bear Lake (Slavey: ''Sahtu'', French: ''Grand lac de l'Ours'') is the largest lake in the Northwest Territories of Canada and the fourth largest in North America . The lake is situated on the Arctic Circle between 65 and 67 degrees of northern Latitude and between 118 and 123 degrees western Longitude , 186 m (610 ft) above sea level. The lake has a surface area of 31,153 km² (12,028 mi²) and a total volume of 2,236 km³ (536 mi³). Its maximum depth is 446 m (1,463 ft) and its average depth 72 m (236 ft). The total shoreline is 2,719 km (1,690 mi) and the total catchment area of the lake is 114,717 km² (44,293 mi²). The lake empties through the Great Bear River (''Sahtu De'') into the Mackenzie River . The only community along the lake is Deline . The Sahtu Dene people took their name from the lake. PREHISTORY Great Bear Lake lies between two major physiographic regions: the Kazan Uplands portion of the Canadian Shield and the Interior Plains . Originally it was part of preglacial valleys that were reshaped by Erosion al effects of ice during the Pleistocene . Since then, the lake has undergone various changes resulting from rebound following the melting of the ice. Precambrian rocks of the Canadian Shield form the eastern margin of the McTavish Arm . These rocks of the Precambrian are made up of Sediment ary and Metamorphic deposits supplemented by Igneous Intrusion s forming Dike s and Sill s. CLIMATE Between 1950 and 1974, this climatic data was collected at Port Radium : SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS |