Field Stations

Contact: Wayne Pollard

805 Sherbrooke Street W
Montreal, QC
H3A2K6 Canada
Tel: (514) 398 4454
Fax: (514) 398 7437
Email: pollard@felix.geog.mcgill.ca

MCGILL SUBARCTIC RESEARCH STATION
SCHEFFERVILLE

The McGILL SUB-ARCTIC RESEARCH STATION is located in Schefferville Quebec near the Labrador border and is serviced by a regular air service from Montreal (via Sept Isles) and by weekly train from Sept-Iles. The station offers year-round (summer and winter) access to a vast area lichen woodland (containing numerous lakes, ponds, streams and wetlands) and alpine tundra. The station can accomodate up to 30 visitors (room and board - $40 per day for McGill staff and students, $45 per day for other universities and $60 per day for all others) and has wet and dry laboratories and a small library. Trucks, snowmobiles, boats and all terrain vehicles are available on a rental basis.The station is administered by Dr. W.H. Pollard.

MCGILL ARCTIC RESEARCH STATION (MARS)
AXEL HEIBERG ISLAND

The McGill Arctic Research Station (MARS) was established in 1960 at Expedition Fjord on Axel Heiberg Island in the Canadian high Arctic. MARS is one of the longest-operating seasonal field research facilities in the high Arctic and has the longest continuous mass balance record for any high Arctic glacier (White Glacier). The station consists of a small research hut, a cook house and 2 temporary structures. It can comfortably accommodate 8-12 persons and provides access to glacier, ice cap and polar desert environments. Current research activities include glaciology, climate change, permafrost hydrology, geology, geomorphology, limnology, planetary analogues and microbiology.

This high arctic field station is located 8 km (5 miles) inland at Expedition Fjord, on Central Axel Heiberg Island. Mountainous and glaciated, the area can be characterized as a polar desert. Some of the most detailed environmental information in the Arctic, including topographic map data, has been collected at this station. Besides McGill, recent users have included other universities, NASA, the Polar Continental Shelf Project, Geological Survey of Canada and the Canadian Museum of Nature.

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