Kane Basin (Danish: Kane Bassin; French: Bassin (de) Kane) is an Arctic waterway lying between Greenland and Ellesmere Island, Canada's northernmost. It links Smith Sound to Kennedy Channel and forms part of Nares Strait. It is approximately 180 km (110 mi) in length and 130 km (81 mi) at its widest.
Kane Basin | |
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Kane Basin | |
Location | Smith Sound / Kennedy Channel |
Coordinates | 79°04′30″N 73°05′10″W / 79.07500°N 73.08611°W[1] |
Ocean/sea sources | Arctic Ocean |
Basin countries | Canada |
Settlements | Uninhabited |
It is named after the American explorer Elisha Kent Kane, whose expedition in search of Franklin's lost expedition crossed it in 1854. Kane himself had named it "Peabody Bay," in honor of philanthropist George Peabody, the major funder of Kane's expedition.[2] Currently Peabody Bay is a bay at the eastern side of the basin, off the southwestern end of the Humboldt Glacier in northern Greenland.[3][4]
A believer in the hypothesis of an open polar sea, he persuaded Grinnell, American financier George Peabody, the United States Navy Department, and several scientific societies to sponsor a second expedition to go north from Baffin Bay to the shores of the "Polar Sea" in search of Franklin. [...] The Advance then proceeded up the west coast of Greenland and into the sound Kane named Peabody Bay (later renamed Kane Basin) where, by the end of August, its northward progress was stopped by the ice.