Queen Elizabeth Islands that are now completely part of the Northwest Territories. Below the level of the territory, there is the municipal level of administration. On that level, there are only two municipalities, Resolute and Grise Fiord, with an aggregate area of (0.11 percent of the area of the Queen Elizabeth Islands), but with most of the population of the archipelago (370 out of 375). The remaining 99.89 percent are unincorporated area, with a census 2006 population of five, all in Alert. According to the Atlas of Canada there are 34 larger and 2,092 smaller islands in the archipelago. With the exception of
Queen Elizabeth Islands of advanced marine and land seismic technologies in Alaska, Northern Europe and Siberia could be modified for use in the Queen Elizabeth Islands. First sighted by Europeans in 1616, the Queen Elizabeth Islands were not fully explored and charted until the British Northwest Passage expeditions and later Norwegian exploration of the 19th century. These islands were known as the Parry Archipelago for over 130 years. They were first named after British Arctic explorer Sir William Parry, who sailed there in 1820, aboard the "Hecla". Since the renaming of the archipelago in 1953, the term Parry Islands continued to be used