Queen Elizabeth Islands

Queen Elizabeth Islands northern part of the Arctic Archipelago, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, N Canada. Ellesmere Island (the largest), the Parry group (Melville, Bathurst, Devon, Prince Patrick, and Cornwallis islands), and the Sverdrup group (Axel Heiberg, Ellef Ringnes, Amund Ringnes, and many smaller islands) are found there. The islands are underlain by oil-bearing rock; extensive drilling has been under way since the early 1960s. The British explorer Sir William Parry explored (1819-20) many of the islands, and they were known (until 1954) as the Parry Islands.

Queen Elizabeth Islands, Canada Stretching across the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, the islands include the Parry and Sverdrup island groups, Ellesmere Island, and others. They were named as a group only in 1953 to commemorate the coronation of Elizabeth II (1926– ), Queen of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland (1952– ).