Point Barrow or Nuvuk is a headland on the Arctic coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, 15 km (9 mi) northeast of Barrow. It is the northernmost point of the United States, at . The distance to the North Pole is 2078 km (1292 mi / 1122 nm). Point Barrow is also an important geographical landmark, marking the limit between two marginal seas of the Arctic, the Chukchi Sea on its western side and the Beaufort Sea on the eastern. The first European to see it was English geographer Frederick William Beechey, in 1825. It is named for Sir John Barrow, a statesman and geographer of the British Admiralty. The water around it is normally ice-free for only two or three months a year, but this period is increasing,[1] possibly due to global warming. It has been a jumping-off point for many Arctic expeditions, including the Wilkins-Detroit Arctic Expeditions and the April 15, 1928 Eielson-Wilkins flight across the Arctic Ocean to Spitsbergen. It is close to site of the airplane crash on August 15, 1935 that killed aviator Wiley Post and his sole passenger, the widely respected social commentator Will Rogers. Between 1965 and 1972 it was used as a launch site for Nike Cajun and Nike Apache sounding rockets. It is the site of a Global Atmosphere Watch atmospheric monitoring station. The headland is also an important archaeological site, yielding burials and artefacts associated with the Thule culture[2].
References
- ^ http://seagrant.uaf.edu/nosb/papers/2005/seward-jeannot.html
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6902858.stm
