Here’s a wild, fun fact to pull out of your pocket during your next social event. The world’s largest island-in-a-lake-on-an-island-in-a-lake-on-an-island is a real place, and it’s located in Canada. With a population of just over 41,000 people, Nunavut has the smallest population of any province or territory, and it’s home to this fascinating geological marvel — sometimes referred to on the internet as “Inception Island.”
The eighth-largest island in the world
The technically nameless isle is located within Victoria Island, the eighth-largest in the world. Victoria Island is one of about 36,000 islands in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, so uncovering this specific isle inside it is no easy feat.
Separated from northern Canada by an icy gulf, Victoria Island is known as “Kitlineq” to Inuit locals, according to NASA and Condé Nast Traveler. Approximately 120 km inland from the southern coast is a series of long finger lakes, and in one of them, an island surrounding a smaller, unnamed lake, and in that smaller lake, a narrow, four-acre island.
A “sub-sub-sub island”
According to NASA’s Earth Observatory, a 2014 image captured of the “sub-sub-sub-island” reveals the lake-centred topography of the Kitikmeot Region. This is a result of the last Ice Age around 20,000 years ago, during which time, nearly all of Canada was covered by expansive ice sheets. As the ice melted, ebbed, and flowed with the Arctic seas, millions of lakes, ponds, and streams were forged in Nunavut, which can be seen today.
A 2012 Live Science article explains that it was previously thought that the world’s largest sub-sub-sub island title went to one in a crater lake housed on the Philippine island of Luzon. While it’s unlikely that Canada’s tiny isle has ever been visited by humans, exhaustive Google Earth searches have proven otherwise.
The Inuit have lived in Nunavut for thousands of years, and today, make up 25 communities in the territory. The Government of Nunavut is in the process of re-acquiring control over Nunavut’s public (Crown) lands and resources in a measure called devolution.
So there you have it, geography lovers. If identifying rare natural wonders is your jam, this is a great spot to keep in the back of your mind.
“Inception Island,” Nunavut
Where: Kitikmeot Region, NU
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