Queen Elizabeth Islands on the east, Parry Channel on the south and the Arctic Ocean to the north and west. Most are uninhabited although the Natural Resources Canada's Climate Change Geoscience Program Earth Sciences Sector (ESS), has monitors on the islands. In 1969 Panarctic Oils, now part of Suncor began operating exploration oil wells in the Sverdrup and Franklinian basins and planned on establishing its resource base in the Queen Elizabeth Islands. It ceased production in the 1970s. At the 2013 GeoConvention the Arctic Islands region were called Canada's perpetual "last petroleum exploration frontier". Hogg and Enachescu argued that the development and implementation
Queen Elizabeth Islands Ellesmere Island, they fall into two groups, the Sverdrup Islands and the Parry Islands: The Queen Elizabeth Islands contain four glaciers that represent c.14% of all glaciers and ice caps in the world. According to a 2011 report, the largest of the four, the Devon Ice Cap measured (northwest sector only); the Meighen Ice Cap measured ; the Melville South Ice Cap measured and the White Glacier, Axel Heiberg Island glacier was . The size of these glaciers has been measured since 1961 and their results published in such distinguished journals as the International Glaciological Society's "Annals of Glaciology." Of