Great Bear Lake

For the novel by Erin Hunter, see Great Bear Lake (novel).

Great Bear Lake
Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories
Great Bear Lake is located in Northwest Territories
Great Bear Lake
Great Bear Lake
LocationNorthwest Territories
Coordinates65°50′01″N 120°45′06″W / 65.83361°N 120.75167°W / 65.83361; -120.75167[1]
Lake typeGlacial
Primary outflowsGreat Bear River
Catchment area114,717 km2 (44,292 sq mi)[2][3]
Basin countriesCanada
Surface area31,153 km2 (12,028 sq mi)[2][3]
Average depth71.7 m (235 ft)[2][3]
Max. depth446 m (1,463 ft)[2][3]
Water volume2,234 km3 (536 cu mi)[2][3]
Residence time124 years[2]
Shore length12,719 km (1,690 mi) (plus 824 km (512 mi) island shoreline)[2][3]
Surface elevation156 m (512 ft)
FrozenNovember - July[3]
Islands26 main islands, totalling 759.3 km2 (293.2 sq mi) in area[2]
SettlementsDélı̨nę
References[2][3]
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

Great Bear Lake (Slave: Sahtú; French: Grand lac de l'Ours) is a lake in the boreal forest of Canada. It is the largest lake entirely in Canada (Lake Superior and Lake Huron are larger but straddle the Canada–US border), the fourth-largest in North America, and the eighth-largest in the world.[4] The lake is in the Northwest Territories, on the Arctic Circle between 65 and 67 degrees of northern latitude and between 118 and 123 degrees western longitude, 156 m (512 ft) above sea level.

The name originated from the Chipewyan word satudene, meaning "grizzly bear-water people". The Sahtu, a Dene people, are named after the lake. Grizzly Bear Mountain, or Sahoyue, on the shore of the lake also comes from Chipewyan, meaning "bear-large hill".[5][6]

Sahoyue (Grizzly Bear Mountain), a peninsula on the south side of the lake, and Edacho (Scented Grass Hills), another peninsula on the west side, form the Saoyú-ʔehdacho National Historic Site of Canada.[7][8]

  1. ^ "Great Bear Lake". Geographical Names Data Base. Natural Resources Canada.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Johnson, L. (1975). "Physical and chemical characteristics of Great Bear Lake". J. Fish. Res. Board Can. 32 (11): 1971–1987. doi:10.1139/f75-234. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. (World Lakes Database)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Hebert, Paul (2007), "Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories", Encyclopedia of Earth, Washington, DC: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment, retrieved 7 December 2007
  4. ^ "World's largest lakes". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
  5. ^ Johnson, L. The Great Bear Lake: Its Place in History Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Calgary, Alberta: Arctic Institute of North America (AINA) database at the University of Calgary. pp. 236-237. Retrieved on: 30 January 2012.
  6. ^ "Natural Resources Canada-Canadian Geographical Names (Grizzly Bear Mountain)". Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  7. ^ "Saoyú-ʔehdacho National Historic Site of Canada". Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  8. ^ "Northwest Territories Protected Areas Strategy (Saoyú-ʔehdacho)". Archived from the original on 11 August 2016. Retrieved 20 December 2014.