Geography
Herschel Island has an area of 116 km2 (45 sq mi). It is approximately 15 km (9.3 mi) by 8 km (5.0 mi) between shorelines, with a rolling tundra terrain that ranges in height from sea level to 182 m (596 ft).
The island was created from sediments that were thrust up by a lobe of Laurentide glacier ice emanating from the Mackenzie Valley and moving westward along the coastal plain approximately 30,000 years ago. There is no bedrock core to the island. The island is subject to very high rates of coastal erosion due to the ice-rich nature of the underlying permafrost, and its surface heaves and rolls down its own hillsides from the effects of frost creep and solifluction.
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