Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

K. Global Links

Throughout the year, Yellowknife attracts many tourists from all around the world. Between 2004 and 2005 tourists spent a total of $100.5 million dollars in Yellowknife. Diamonds are also exported around the world from Yellowknife's diamond mines. Yellowknife is also certainly well connected with the busiest airport in northern Canada.

D. Natural Vegetation Region

Yellowknife's vegetation region is Boreal & Taiga. Yellowknife is mostly made up of Boreal forest. Most plants growing in Yellowknife are coniferous trees or smaller shrubs. Common plants include firs, pines, spruces, hemlocks, and larches. Many areas are also bare rock with lichen growing on them. The ground is usually moist because of little evaporation occurring in the Summer. This results in the soil types to be muskeg and bog which are wetland type soils. During the short growing season in the Summer, Yellowknife can have explosive plant growth due to long day lengths and the moist ground.

G. Economy & Economic History

Yellowknife's main economic activities are mining, tourism, and transportation. Yellowknife was founded in 1935 after the discovery of rich gold deposits. It's currently known as the diamond capital of North America because of 3 operating diamond mines near the city. Yellowknife also attracts many tourists because of the cultural activities occurring all throughout the year. Many also visit Yellowknife to view the infamous Northern Lights. Additionally, Yellowknife has the busiest airport in northern Canada. It handles over 400 000 passengers and 30 000 tonnes of cargo a year.

E. Rivers & Water

Major bodies of water in Yellowknife are Great Slave Lake and Yellowknife River. Yellowknife is located on the north shore of Great Slave Lake. The lake has become a great place for recreation and tourism. To the west of Yellowknife, is Yellowknife Bay. This puts the city of Yellowknife right near the outlet of Yellowknife River. The city get's it's drinking water from Yellowknife River which is about 5km away. Unfortunately, the residents of Yellowknife can not get their water from Great Slave Lake, which is a much closer body of water to the city, than Yellowknife River. This is because of pollution caused by mining in that area. More specifically, the pollution was caused by Giant Mine. The mine closed in 2004 but harmful chemicals have been detected in the drinking water since then. The city has to be careful about their water and make sure it's collected from Yellowknife River, upstream from Giant Mine.

C. Climate Region

H. Population & Immigration

The total population in Yellowknife was 19 888 in 2011. It has a population density of 142.86 people/km2. Which is quite a small population density compared to Ottawa's of 1680.5/km2. Yellowknife's growth rate is 0.6% and something quite interesting about their population is that their age distribution is slightly disproportionate. The average age in Yellowknife is 32.2 compared to Canada's average age 39.5. The largest percent of their population is between the ages of 25-44 while only 6.4% of their population is 60 years or older.

About 3% of Yellowknife's population are immigrants. Only about 500 immigrants arrived in Yellowknife between 2001-2006.

Yellowknife's climate region is Taiga. It has a subarctic, semi-arid, continental climate, with a temperature range of -8. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Yellowknife was -51.2 degrees Celsius on January 31, 1947. The highest temperature ever recorded was 32.5 degrees Celsius on July 16, 1989. Yellowknife gets less than 300mm of precipitation a year and has a frost-free growing season that lasts about 100 days. Because of Yellowknife's high latitude, there's a large variation between day and night. Daylight hours can range from 5 hours in December to 20 hours in June. Twilight lasts all night from late May to Early July. Yellowknife actually has the sunniest Summer in the country.

A. Landforms

B. Geologic History

Yellowknife's landform region is the Canadian Shield. It's made up of mostly igneous rock, such as granite, with some metamorphic rock. The land is rocky, slightly rolling, and has many small lakes. This is due to glaciers scraping up the land during the last ice age. The Canadian Shield is abundant in many metallic minerals such as iron, nickel, copper, zinc, uranium, gold, silver, and platinum. Yellowknife, being on the Canadian Shield, is rich in metallic minerals. Therefore, the city started off as a major mining town.

Yellowknife was formed 500 million years ago in the Precambrian era. The Canadian Shield was the first part of Canada to be permanently raised above sea level. Factors such as rising, folding, faulting, erosion, and continental ice sheets created it's present topography. Glaciers that scraped the land less than 12 000 years ago resulted in the land to be rocky with a very thin layer of topsoil. Kimberlite pipes were formed 2 billion years ago on the Canadian Shield when jets of molten rock, rising to the surface, formed narrow pipes called kimberlites. Extreme heat and pressure in these pipes caused the formation of diamonds. Yellowknife is known as the diamond capital of North America because of the plentiful amount of diamonds found there.

F. Natural Resources

The major resources taken from Yellowknife are diamonds and natural gas. Yellowknife started as a gold mining town. The first discovery of gold in the area was in the late 19th century. However, due to the Klondike Gold Rush going on at the time, and the remoteness of Yellowknife, the discovery was viewed as unimportant. In the Fall of 1935, a small staking rush to Yellowknife occurred and impressive gold deposits were found. Soon, people started moving to Yellowknife for jobs working in mines. By 1942, five gold mines were in production. Gold mining in Yellowknife eventually came to a stop in the Summer of 2004 as diamond mining became more significant. The first discovery of diamonds in Yellowknife was in 1991 and Canada's first diamond mine began production in 1998. Diamonds have since become Yellowknife's main natural resource. Gold and diamonds aren't the only natural resources found in Yellowknife though. Huge amounts of natural gas as well as tungsten, tantalum, and uranium are found in the area.

Mining isn't a very sustainable resource. The natural resources will eventually run out. It's also much harder to replace diamonds rather than something like trees. Furthermore, mining is also impacting a lot of things in the area. Factors such as draining of lakes, destruction of streams, and changes in water quality are creating a loss of fish habitat. There's also an increased production of greenhouse gasses because the mines are fueled by millions of liters of diesel.

J. Pollution And Environmental Challenges

Opened in 1948, Giant Mine was once one of Canada's most significant gold producers. During the procedure of mining gold, there is a process called "roasting". This process is used to remove gold from a type of rock called arsenopyrite rock. The roasting sent a chemical called arsenic trioxide into the air. Arsenic trioxide is a chemical which is readily absorbed into the digestive system and can cause kidney problems, liver problems, hair loss, and changes in skin pigmentation. Arsenic started being detected in Yellowknife's drinking water in the 1970's, and since then, the residents of Yellowknife have had to make sure they get their water from a clean resource. Giant mine has since closed, however, there now lies over 237 000 tonnes of arsenic trioxide buried below the surface of the once great gold mine.

I. Recreation

Yellowknife is a great place to visit any time of year. They have tonnes of activities that attract many tourists from all over the world. In Spring, there's dog races, foot races, and an ice palace on Great Slave Lake. Great Slave Lake also attract many fisherman in the Summer. During Fall, you can view the brilliant and tantalizing Aurora Borealis. Finally, in Winter, there's dog teams and snowmobile rides under the glowing sky illuminated by the northern lights.