Quark Expeditions

Every August, as pack ice loosens its grip along Nunavut’s eastern coastline, open leads form between the floes and narwhals move into shallow bays to feed. The window is narrow. Within weeks, freeze-up begins again and the whales retreat to deeper water. It’s one of the shortest, most weather-dependent viewin...

Ask where the Arctic “really” begins, and most people point to a line on a map: the Arctic Circle, 66°33′ north, the number stamped on every polar brochure. Scientists who study the region use a different, more useful set of boundaries, drawn not by latitude but by what can actually survive on the ground. Understanding those boundaries matters for anyone comparing arctic crui...

Every summer, off the west coast of Greenland, ice the size of city blocks breaks free from a glacier and drifts silently into open water. Fishing boats slow down. Cameras come out. Quark Expedition Leader David “Woody” Wood, says his team will sometimes cut the engine mid-channel...

Late summer on Devon Island or Somerset Island turns the tundra a deep rust and gold, and it’s often the best time to see two of the Arctic’s most resourceful residents at once. Arctic foxes and musk oxen share much of the same ground across the Canadian High Arctic, yet they’ve solved the same problem, staying al...