Surf Wiki
Save to docs
geography/united-kingdom

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

60th parallel north

Circle of latitude in the Northern Hemisphere

Circle of latitude in the Northern Hemisphere

The 60th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 60 degrees north of Earth's equator. It crosses Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean.

Although it lies approximately twice as far away from the Equator as from the North Pole, the 60th parallel is half as long as the Equator line, due to the cosine of 60 degrees being 0.5. This is where the Earth bulges halfway as much as on the Equator.

At this latitude, the Sun is visible for 18 hours, 7 minutes during the June solstice and 5 hours, 52 minutes during the December solstice. The maximum altitude of the Sun is 53.44° on 21 June and 6.56° on 21 December. The maximum altitude of the Sun is 15.00º in October and 8.00º in November.

The lowest latitude where white nights can be observed is approximately on this parallel. White nights in the 60th parallel north occur around the June Solstice (Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere).

During the summer solstice, nighttime does not get beyond nautical twilight, a condition which lasts throughout the month of June. It is possible to view both astronomical dawn and dusk every day between August 22 and April 21.

Around the world

Malachy Tallack wrote a book, Sixty Degrees North: Around the World in Search of Home, about his travels along the general line of the parallel, starting and finishing at Shetland.

Starting at the Prime Meridian and heading eastwards, the parallel 60° north passes through:

:{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable" ! scope="col" width="125" | Coordinates ! scope="col" | Country, territory or ocean ! scope="col" | Notes |- ! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;" | Atlantic Ocean |- | ! scope="row" |

Islands of Stolmen and Selbjørn, Hordaland
! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;"
-

| ! scope="row" |

Island of Huftarøy, Hordaland
! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;"
-

| ! scope="row" |

Islands of Reksteren, Tysnesøy and the mainland Hordaland
! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;"
-

| ! scope="row" | | Mainland: Folgefonna glacier, Telemark, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo, Hedmark, Østfold Passing just north of the capital Oslo |- | ! scope="row" | | Passing through Fagersta Passing just north of Uppsala |- ! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;" | Atlantic Ocean |- | ! scope="row" |

Högskär, Bäckö and several smaller islands,
! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;"
-

| ! scope="row" |

Passing through Ekenäs
! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;"
-

| ! scope="row" |

Porkkala peninsula
! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;"
Passing just south of Helsinki, and the island of Gogland,
-

| ! scope="row" |

Moshchny Island
! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;"
-

| ! scope="row" |

Island of Kotlin (city of Kronstadt)
! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;"
-

| ! scope="row" |

Passing through Saint Petersburg, Lake Ladoga
! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;"
-

| ! scope="row" |

Kamchatka Peninsula
! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;"
-

| ! scope="row" |

Pylgin Range
! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;"
-

| ! scope="row" |

Olyutor Peninsula
! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;"
-

| ! scope="row" |

Alaska - Nunivak Island
! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;"
-

| ! scope="row" |

Alaska
! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;"
-

| ! scope="row" |

Alaska - Kenai Peninsula, Evans Island, Elrington Island, Latouche Island and Montague Island
! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;"
-

| ! scope="row" |

Alaska - Wingham Island, Kayak Island and a small section of mainland
! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;"
-

| ! scope="row" |

Alaska

| ! scope="row" | | Yukon / British Columbia border Northwest Territories / British Columbia border Northwest Territories / Alberta border - passes through Wood Buffalo National Park and beside Fort Smith, NT Northwest Territories / Saskatchewan border Nunavut / Manitoba border |- ! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;" | Arctic Ocean Passing just north of the Ottawa Islands, Nunavut, |- | ! scope="row" | | Quebec Passing just south of Puvirnituq, Quebec |- ! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;" | Arctic Ocean Passing just south of Kangirsuk, Quebec, |-valign="top" | ! scope="row" |

Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador
! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;"
-

| ! scope="row" |

Passing south of Narsaq; crossing mainland at Narsarmijit; going through Cape Farewell Archipelago, passing just north of Itilleq Island
! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;"
-

| ! scope="row" |

Islands of Mainland and Mousa, Shetland Islands,
! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;"
}

Notable cities and towns on 60°N

  • Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada
  • Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, Canada
  • Bergen, Vestland, Norway
  • Oslo, Norway
  • Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland
  • Espoo, Uusimaa, Finland
  • Saint Petersburg, Russia
  • Lerwick, Scotland, UK
  • Uppsala, Sweden

Canada

In Canada, the 60th parallel forms the southern mainland boundary of the northern territories of Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut with the western provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.

Accordingly, "north of 60" is an expression often used for the territories, although parts of Nunavut (the islands in Hudson Bay and James Bay) are located south of the 60th parallel, and parts of Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador are located north, to the east of Hudson Bay. A 1990s TV show on CBC about life in the Northwest Territories was called North of 60.

The 60th Parallel Territorial Park is on Mackenzie Highway between Alberta and Northwest Territories and it has a visitor centre there in the homeland of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation and the North Slave Métis Alliance.

Canada's only four corners are located at the intersection of the 60th parallel and the 102nd meridian west, between the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.

Greenland

Between 1776 and 1950, the 60th parallel formed the southern limit of the Royal Greenland Trade Department's exclusive monopoly on trade near the Dano-Norwegian and later Danish colonies of Greenland (1776–1782) and South Greenland (1782–1950).

References

References

  1. (2019-09-24). "Duration of Daylight/Darkness Table for One Year".
  2. NASA. "Earth Fact Sheet".
  3. (8 July 2015). "60 Degrees North by Malachy Tallack review – around the world in search of home". [[The Guardian]].
  4. (2017). "Sixty Degrees North: Around the World in Search of Home". Pegasus Books.
  5. (1953). "Limits of Oceans and Seas, 3rd edition". International Hydrographic Organization.
  6. "60th Parallel Visitor Information Centre". Northwest Territories Tourism.
  7. Marquardt, Ole. "[https://books.google.com/books?id=FZQcjsSitEcC&pg=PA156 Change and Continuity in Denmark's Greenland Policy]" in ''The Oldenburg Monarchy: An Underestimated Empire?''. Verlag Ludwig (Kiel), 2006.
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

circles-of-latitude borders-of-yukon borders-of-the-northwest-territories borders-of-nunavut borders-of-british-columbia borders-of-alberta borders-of-saskatchewan borders-of-manitoba
Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 60th parallel north — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report