On a discussion on IRC, we got to talking about places north. Does anyone know:
- The northernmost city with over a million people?
- The northernmost city with over 100,000 people?
- Hi, Opal!
- The northernmost incorporated town?
The northernmost city in the world, “city” defined as having more than 5,000 inhabitants, is Hammerfest, Norway.
More than a million? Leningrad? Just my WAG…
St. Petersburg, you mean?
The northernmost permanent town of any kind, IIRC, is Alert, Canada. I don’t even know what territory it’s in, but it’s wayyyyy up there.
However, it’s very small, maybe 500-1000 people.
I’m fairly certain that the northernmost city with a million people is Arkhangel’sk, which is further north than Leningrad/St. Petersburg.
Over 100,000 is almost certainly Murmansk.
Hammerfest is a traditional answer, and there probably is nothing >5000 north of it, but if Barrow, AK, counts as an incorporated town, it’s a bit further north. Possibilities WAY north of that:
Longyearben, Norway, on Svalbard Island
Nord, Greenland
Alert, NW Territories, CAN (I have an old atlas)
All of these are in the vicinity of 80 degrees north latitude.
I’d go with Leningrad for > 1 million, unless Helsinki has grown to over 1 million in population. Archangel isn’t 1 million in population according to my atlas.
Alert is now in Nunavut.
http://www.taiga.net/arctic2000/abstracts/smiths2.html
You’re right; I mixed up the city with the region (oblast) it’s a capital of (which has the same name.)
Leningrad/St. Petersburg is just a bit further north than Helsinki or Oslo. It wins.
Alert is in Nunavuut. That’s right, Nunavuut. and it most certainly does not have anywhere close to 500 people. It’s a weather station that only die-hard weatherfolk live at.
Always wanted to make a visit, if only to find out why they named it Alert in the first place.
Hey! It’s more exciting than doing a Google search, right?
Actually, no. Murmansk is at 68.96[sup]o[/sup] latitude. Noril’sk in West/Northern Siberia near the Taymyr Penninsula has a poopulation of about 138,000 and is located at 69.32[sup]o[/sup] latitude.
By the way, I think the concept of town incorporation is an American idea. Does anyone know for sure? I think it might be better to substitute “permanent settlement”. i think we’ve got this question answered. yay.
Interestingly, “southernmost” is much easier;
Over a million: Melbourne, Australia
Over 100,000: Punta Arenas, Chile
Incorporated town: Puerto Williams, Chile
Permanent habitation: Amundsen-Scott Research Station
How about the same question, but for the highest and lowest elevation?
Well, the reason it’s called Alert is because it ISN’T a weather station. I don’t know where you got that, but Alert is a Canadian army base with radio intercept stations. Hence the name. Well, actually, no… it’s named after a ship.
You’re right, though, there aren’t 500 people. They’re down to a hundred.
Alert is at 82 degrees 30’06"N, about 800KM from Santa’s house. It is 700 kilometres NORTH of the closest Inuit settlement.
*Originally posted by evilhanz *
True - but I do believe that Murmansk is the largest settlement north of the Arctic Circle (population of 472,900 circa 1995).
Yes, but the poster’s criteria called for the northernmost settlement with a population over 100,000.
*Originally posted by Dooku *
Dooku,
Just a WAG, but I would venture to guess for the highest elevation somewhere in the Andes Mountains in South America or around the Himalayas in Asia (my guess is possibly somehere in Tibet - I remember reading that Lhasa is located over 12,000 feet in elevation).
For the lowest - a settlement near the shores of the Dead Sea, either in Jordan or Israel.
evilhanz,
Sorry - just wanted to add further info to the discussion.
evilhanz is correct. Noril’sk didn’t appear to be a big enough dot on my map to look up the population (it was marked with a smaller dot than something with <100,000 population). Murmansk is 3 times the size, but is just a bit further south.
Without digging up references, La Paz, Bolivia is often stated as the world’s highest major city (in elevation, wiseguy - about 13K feet).
They may have decided to change the name of the place Alert is in, but I’m having Nunavuut … that’s a weird looking name and I just can’t get Innuit …
La Paz’ altitude is given as 3 567 m, which converts to 11 702 feet (give or take a couple). Rongbuk monastery, on the slopes of Everest in Tibet, is at 4 980 m (16 338 ft) and is usually referred to as the highest permanent habitation.