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Elric of Melniboné

Elric of Melniboné is a fictional character created by English writer Michael Moorcock and the protagonist of a series of sword and sorcery stories taking place on an alternative Earth. The proper name and title of the character are Elric VIII, 428th Emperor of Melniboné. Later stories by Moorcock marked Elric as a facet of the Eternal Champion.

Elric first appeared in print in Moorcock's novella "The Dreaming City" (Science Fantasy No. 47, June 1961). Moorcock's doomed albino antihero is one of the better known characters in fantasy literature, having crossed over into a wide variety of media, such as role-playing games, comics, music, and film. The stories have been continuously in print since the 1970s.

Description
Elric is described in 1972's Elric of Melniboné:

"It is the colour of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair which flows below his shoulders is milk-white. From the tapering, beautiful head stare two slanting eyes, crimson and moody, and from the loose sleeves of his yellow gown emerge two slender hands, also the colour of bone."

Elric is the last emperor of the stagnating island civilization of Melniboné. Physically weak, the anemic Elric must use drugs (special herbs) to maintain his health and vitality. From childhood, he read freely in the immense royal library and learned of the world outside the Dreaming Isle. Perhaps due to this in-depth study, unlike other members of his race, Elric has a conscience. He witnesses the decadence of his culture, which once ruled the known world, and worries about the rise of the Young Kingdoms populated by humans (Melnibonéans consider themselves separate from humanity), along with the threat they pose to his empire. Because of Elric's introspective self-loathing and hatred of Melnibonéan traditions, his subjects find him odd and unfathomable. However, his cousin Yyrkoon (next in the line of succession, as Elric has no heirs) interprets this behaviour as weakness and plots Elric's death. Complicating matters is Yyrkoon's sister Cymoril, who is deeply in love with Elric; Yyrkoon covets her, and part of his plan for usurpation is to marry Cymoril himself.

In addition to his skill with herbs, Elric is an accomplished sorcerer and summoner. As emperor of Melniboné, Elric is able to call for aid upon the traditional patron of the Melniboné emperors, Arioch, a Lord of Chaos and Duke of Hell. From the first story, Elric uses ancient pacts and agreements with not only Arioch, but various other beings—some gods, some demons—to help him accomplish his tasks.

Elric's discovery of the sword Stormbringer serves as both his greatest asset and disadvantage. The sword confers upon Elric strength, health, and fighting prowess, allowing him to do away with his dependence on drugs, but it must be fed by the souls of intelligent beings. In the end, the blade takes everyone close to Elric and eventually Elric's own soul as well. Most of Moorcock's stories about Elric feature this relationship with Stormbringer, and how it—despite Elric's best intentions—brings doom to everything he holds dear.

Setting
Melniboné, also known as the Dragon Isle, is an imaginary country, an island among the Young Kingdoms.

Centuries before Elric's birth, Melniboné ruled its world through sorcerous might and sheer power. By the time of Elric's birth, it has slipped from its preeminent place, being one of many nations. The Melnibonéans themselves are not wholly human. They are skilled with magic and beautiful, though psychologically similar to cats, with a callous nature. They are bound by many ancient customs.

Melniboné's capital and only surviving city is Imrryr, known as "The Dreaming City". Most of the rest of the island has been allowed to revert to wilderness. Caverns exist below the island, in which dragons sleep, awaiting the Melnibonéans' summons to war.

Influences
Moorcock acknowledges the work of Bertolt Brecht, particularly Threepenny Novel and The Threepenny Opera, as "one of the chief influences" on the initial Elric sequence; he dedicated 1972's Elric of Melniboné to Brecht. In the same dedication, he cited Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions and Fletcher Pratt's The Well of the Unicorn as similarly influential texts. Moorcock has referred to Elric as a type of the "doomed hero", one of the oldest character-types in literature, akin to such hero-villains as Mervyn Peake's Steerpike in the Titus Groan trilogy, Poul Anderson's Scafloc in The Broken Sword, T. H. White's Lancelot in The Once and Future King, J. R. R. Tolkien's cursed hero Túrin Turambar, and Jane Gaskell's Zerd in The Serpent. John Clute considers Elric to be a deliberate parody of Robert E. Howard's Conan.

The story of Kullervo from Finnish mythology contains elements similar to Elric's story, such as a talking magic sword and fatal alienation of the hero from his family. Besides Elric, Kullervo has been proposed as having influence on Poul Anderson's 1954 novel The Broken Sword, and J.R.R. Tolkien's Túrin Turambar. Moorcock has stated that "Anderson's a definite influence [on Elric], as stated. But oddly, the Kalevala was read to us at my boarding school when I was about seven", and "from a very early age I was reading Norse legends and any books I could find about Norse stories". Moorcock in the same posting stated that "one thing I'm pretty sure of, I was not in any way directly influenced by Prof. T[olkien]".

Elric's albinism appears influenced by Monsieur Zenith, an albino Sexton Blake villain whom Moorcock appreciated enough to write into later multiverse stories. Moorcock read Zenith stories in his youth and has contributed to their later reprinting, remarking that it "took me forty years to find another copy of Zenith the Albino! In fact it was a friend who found it under lock and key and got a copy of it to Savoy who are, at last, about to reprint it! Why I have spent so much energy making public the evidence of my vast theft from Anthony Skene, I'm not entirely sure... ". Moorcock later said: "As I've said in my introduction to Monsieur Zenith: The Albino, the Anthony Skene's character was a huge influence. For the rest of the character, his ambiguities in particular, I based him on myself at the age I was when I created Elric, which was 20". The influence of Zenith on Elric is often cited in discussions of Zenith.

Publishing history
Elric first appeared in print in a series of six novelettes published in Science Fantasy magazine:
 * "The Dreaming City" (Science Fantasy No. 47, June 1961)
 * "While the Gods Laugh" (Science Fantasy No. 49, October 1961)
 * "The Stealer of Souls" (Science Fantasy No. 51, February 1962)
 * "Kings in Darkness" (Science Fantasy No. 54, August 1962)
 * "The Flame Bringers" (Science Fantasy No. 55, October 1962); retitled "The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams" in some later collections.
 * "To Rescue Tanelorn ..." (Science Fantasy No. 56, December 1962)

After this came four novellas: The last of these terminated the sequence with the close of Elric's life.
 * "Dead God's Homecoming" (Science Fantasy No. 59, June 1963)
 * "Black Sword's Brothers" (Science Fantasy No. 61, October 1963)
 * "Sad Giant's Shield" (Science Fantasy No. 63, February 1964)
 * "Doomed Lord's Passing" (Science Fantasy No. 64, April 1964)

After these initial Elric tales, Moorcock periodically published short tales throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, such as 1967's "The Singing Citadel" and 1973's "The Jade Man's Eyes". Meant to be placed in between the initial stories but before the conclusion of "Doomed Lord's Passing", these later stories would frequently be edited, retitled, and combined together with other material to form fix-ups as part of later republication campaigns.

The first original Elric novel, 1972's Elric of Melniboné, is a prequel detailing Elric's origin and how he came to possess Stormbringer. In 1989 came the second original Elric novel, The Fortress of the Pearl, followed in 1991 with The Revenge of the Rose. A decade later Moorcock began an original Elric trilogy, beginning with The Dreamthief's Daughter (2001), followed by The Skrayling Tree (2003) and The White Wolf's Son (2005). In 2022, Moorcock published The Citadel of Forgotten Myths, a new Elric novel set between "Kings in Darkness" and "The Flame Bringers".

Internal chronology
The main sequence, according to the saga's internal chronology, comprises the following books. Bold roman numerals indicate the six-book sequence of the 1977 DAW paperbacks. The dates following each story refer to the date of original publication. In those cases where a book was assembled from several pre-existing stories, each story is given along with its original date; when an original novel is subdivided into parts, the parts are named but not given individual dates.

 * “The Folk of the Forest” (2023)
 * (I) Elric of Melniboné (1972)
 * The Fortress of the Pearl (1989)
 * "The Black Blade's Song" (1994) (AKA "The White Wolf's Song") (AKA "The Black Blade's Summoning")
 * (II) The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (1976)
 * Book One: "Sailing To the Future"
 * Book Two: "Sailing To the Present" (revision of "The Lands Beyond the World")
 * Book Three: "Sailing To the Past" (revision of "The Jade Man's Eyes")
 * Elric at the End of Time (1981)
 * (III) The Weird of the White Wolf
 * Prologue: "The Dream of Earl Aubec" (original title: "Master of Chaos") (May 1964)
 * Book One: "The Dreaming City" (June 1961)
 * "A Portrait in Ivory" (2003)
 * Book Two: "While the Gods Laugh" (October 1961)
 * Book Three: "The Singing Citadel" (May 1967)
 * (IV) The Vanishing Tower (original title: The Sleeping Sorceress) (1971)
 * Book One: "The Torment of the Last Lord"
 * Book Two: "To Snare the Pale Prince"
 * Book Three: "Three Heroes With a Single Aim"
 * The Revenge of the Rose (1991)
 * (V) The Bane of the Black Sword
 * Book One: "The Stealer of Souls" (February 1962)
 * Book Two: "Kings in Darkness" (August 1962)
 * The Citadel of Forgotten Myths (revision of Red Pearls, Black Petals, and an unreleased novella White Steel) (2022)
 * Book Three: "The Flame Bringers" (alternative title: "The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams") (October 1962)
 * "The Last Enchantment" (1978) (AKA Jesting With Chaos)
 * Epilogue: "To Rescue Tanelorn" (December 1962)
 * (VI) Stormbringer
 * Book One: "Dead God's Homecoming" (June 1963)
 * Book Two: "Black Sword's Brothers" (October 1963)
 * Book Three: "Sad Giant's Shield" (February 1964)
 * Book Four: "Doomed Lord's Passing" (April 1964)

Chronology uncertain:
 * "Elric: Return to Melniboné" (1973)
 * The Dreamthief's Daughter (2001)
 * The Skrayling Tree (2003)
 * The White Wolf's Son (2005) (takes place while Elric is dreaming in the middle of "Doomed Lord's Passing" in Stormbringer)

Not part of canonical continuity:
 * "The Jade Man's Eyes" (1973) (revised as "Sailing To the Past")
 * "The Lands Beyond the World" (1977) (revised as "Sailing To the Present")
 * "Black Petals" (2008) (revised as Book 2 in The Citadel of Forgotten Myths)
 * "Red Pearls" (2010) (revised as Book 1 in The Citadel of Forgotten Myths)
 * "White Steel" (unreleased) (revised as Book 3 in The Citadel of Forgotten Myths)

Collections
The first five novelettes were originally collected in The Stealer of Souls (1963) and the later four novellas were first published as a novel in an edited version called Stormbringer (1965). The 1965 novel had about a quarter of the text removed for reasons of length (mostly in the second and third novellas) and the remaining text rearranged with new bridging material added to make sense of the restructuring.

In 1977, DAW Books republished Elric's saga in six books that collected the tales according to their internal chronology. These paperbacks all featured cover art work by the same artist, Michael Whelan, and helped define the look of Elric and his sword Stormbringer. The DAW edition of Stormbringer restored some of the original structure and text compared to the 1965 release, but other revisions were performed and other material excised. A few oddments were collected in Elric at the End of Time (1984), which became the seventh book in the DAW line when DAW released it in the US in 1985. It includes two Elric-related tales: the title story and 1962's "The Last Enchantment", originally intended as the final Elric story but put aside in favour of those that eventually made up Stormbringer; it was not published until 1978. Both would appear in later collections (with "The Last Enchantment" occasionally retitled "Jesting with Chaos").

In the 1990s, Orion Publishing/Millennium released a two-book collection – Elric of Melniboné and Stormbringer – containing the Elric material then available. White Wolf Publishing released a similar two-volume compilation – Elric: Song of the Black Sword (1998) and Elric: The Stealer of Souls (2001). These two-volume compilations are arranged according to the internal chronology of the saga. The White Wolf text has minor revisions when compared to the Millennium release.

The first nine short stories – with "The Flame Bringers" using the later title of "The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams" and the full text of Stormbringer as it appeared in Science Fantasy – were republished in a single volume as Elric (Orion/Gollancz 2001), volume 17 in the Fantasy Masterworks series.

Beginning in 2008, Del Rey Books reprinted the Elric material as a series of six illustrated books: The Stealer of Souls, To Rescue Tanelorn, The Sleeping Sorceress, Duke Elric, Elric in the Dream Realms, and Elric: Swords and Roses. This series arranged the stories in the sequence they were originally published, along with related fiction and nonfiction material. The version of Stormbringer featured in this collection restored all the original material missing since the 1977 DAW edition – which had formed the basis for all later editions – as well as Moorcock's preferred versions of all the revised material in an attempt to produce a definitive text. These volumes present the evolution of the character through early juvenile stories, early fanzine musings by Moorcock, some Elric stories, some others introducing the reader to the wider "Eternal Champion" theme, stories of other heroes who coexist with Elric in the realm of Melniboné, unpublished prologues, installments of Moorcock's essay "Aspects of Fantasy", a 1970s screenplay, a reader's guide, notes from an Elric series that never developed, contemporary reviews, and appreciation essays by other writers.

In August 2012, Victor Gollancz Ltd. announced their intention to republish all of Michael Moorcock's back catalogue, including all the Elric stories, presented in internal chronological order along with previously unpublished material, in both print and e-book formats. The Elric stories were published in seven volumes in 2014–15: Elric of Melniboné and Other Stories, Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl, Elric: The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, Elric: The Sleeping Sorceress, Elric: The Revenge of the Rose, Elric: Stormbringer!, and Elric: The Moonbeam Roads.

Characters in the Elric series

 * Arioch: Lord of Chaos.
 * Cymoril: A Melnibonéan, Elric's cousin, consort and first great love. He hopes to one day make her his wife and empress. She tries to understand and help Elric, but like his subjects, she has difficulty understanding Elric's motivations and would have him rule as the emperors of old. Despite that she stands by Elric in his weakest state before his acquiring of Stormbringer and she supports his dreams and wishes even when she is put in danger by them.
 * Dyvim Slorm: A Melnibonéan, Elric's cousin, son of Dyvim Tvar. He fights alongside Elric in the final war against Chaos, wielding the black sword Mournblade.
 * Dyvim Tvar: A Melnibonéan, one of Elric's few friends. He is one of the Dragon Masters, a group of Melnibonéans who can speak to the Dragons of Melniboné. Dyvim Tvar stays loyal to Elric even after he destroys Imrryr. Dyvim Tvar also has more of a moral compass than most Melnibonéans.
 * Ernest Wheldrake: An amiable poet and bard who involuntarily travels across the Multiverse. Amorous and good-natured, he is given to sudden expulsions of verse and song. He is writing an epic poem about Elric during their shared adventures.
 * Jagreen Lern: The cruel ruler of Pan Tang, skilled with both magic and the use of a battleaxe.
 * Moonglum of Elwher: A short, red-haired human with a cheerfully ugly face, adventuring companion to Elric. He and Elric share many dangers and rewards together. The most steadfast and loyal companion of all the Young Kingdom humans Elric encounters. He helps Elric in completing his fated purpose.
 * Myshella of Law: Colloquially referred to as the Empress of the Dawn and The Dark Lady of Kaneloon, the powerful sorceress Myshella has acted as a guide and consort to Eternal Champions and adventurers alike down through the ages in the ineffable pursuit of Law. Immortal, ageless, and indescribably powerful. She sometimes rides a metal bird with emerald eyes, and more than once lends this mount to Elric.
 * Oone: A Dreamthief by trade, at the Silver Flower Oasis in the Sighing Desert, Lady Oone helps Elric locate The Fortress of the Pearl when another of her order dies in a previous attempt. Her fleeting romance with the albino has considerable significance during the later 'Moonbeam Roads' trilogy.
 * Prince Gaynor The Damned: A fallen knight of the Balance, doomed to suffer without release by the forces of Chaos. He inhabits a formless existence, imprisoned in a black-and-gold suit of armor emblazoned with the 8-pointed symbol of Chaos.
 * Rackhir, the Red Archer: A human, once a Warrior Priest of Phum but cast out of his order. He and Elric travel and adventure together several times throughout the series. Unlike other characters who serve either Law or Chaos, Rackhir devotes himself to the Balance exclusively.
 * Sepiriz: One of the ten remaining Nihrain, this dark-skinned servant of the Balance guides Elric through the final phases of his quest. He is also sometimes called 'The Knight in Black and Yellow'.
 * Shaarilla of Myyrrhn: The daughter of a dead necromancer, Shaarilla of the Dancing Mist was born a mutant and an outcast among her people. Unlike her fellows of Myyrrhn, Shaarilla was born without wings. She enlists Elric to locate The Dead Gods' Book in the hopes it might contain a spell to reverse her deformity.
 * Smiorgan Baldhead: A Count of the Isle of the Purple Towns, and an affable adventurer who accompanies Elric on his adventures on the Nameless Continent. His fleets aid in the Sacking of Imrryr.
 * Theleb K'aarna: A human sorcerer of the Pan Tang isles. After being displaced as Queen Yishana's advisor and chief sorcerer by Elric, he seeks revenge and uses sorcery to hinder several of Elric's plans.
 * The Rose: A beautiful, scarlet-haired warrior Elric encounters on his journeys through the Multiverse. She wields a Lawful counterpart to Elric's Chaos-forged demonblade 'Stormbringer' named 'Swift Thorn'. Serving neither Law nor Chaos, she has sworn an oath of revenge against Gaynor The Damned for the eradication of a universe that was precious to her.
 * Yishana of Jharkor: A human, ruler of Jharkor. She presents Elric with several problems/adventures and openly covets his company and power. Her selfish desires are the root of several of Elric's problems, but she also aids him from time to time and ultimately becomes an important ally in his fight against Chaos.
 * Yyrkoon: Prince of Melniboné, Elric's cousin. He is next in line for the throne, as Elric has no male heir. He worries about Elric's behaviour and takes all of Elric's brooding and philosophical talk as a sign of weakness. He yearns for a return to more traditional emperors and secretly plots Elric's demise. Yyrkoon is a great sorcerer who has made many pacts with unholy forces to obtain his sorcerous strength. As further evidence of his decadent ways, he openly desires his sister Cymoril and intends to make her his wife and Empress if his plans ever reach fruition.
 * Zarozinia: A human of the Young Kingdoms. She falls in love with Elric and eventually marries him, for a time allowing him to experience true love and companionship. For her sake, Elric also gives up his blade Stormbringer and reverts to taking sorcerous herbs to sustain his life.

Comics

 * In 1968, the French artist Philippe Druillet drew the first comics version of Elric in Spirits #1, written by Michel Demuth, which was published as a book the same year.
 * In the early 70s James Cawthorn published his oversized graphic novel Stormbringer with Savoy Books.
 * Elric first appeared in large-circulation comics in America in Conan the Barbarian issues 14–15 (1972), in an adventure in two parts entitled "A Sword Called Stormbringer!" and "The Green Empress of Melniboné". The comic was written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Barry Windsor-Smith, based on a story plotted by Michael Moorcock and James Cawthorn.
 * Star Reach comics published Elric stories in the late 1970s. First Comics published several Elric mini-series in the 1980s as well.
 * P. Craig Russell has drawn comics adaptations of three Moorcock novels: Elric of Melniboné (with Roy Thomas and Michael T. Gilbert; Pacific Comics), The Dreaming City and While the Gods Laugh (representing the first two-thirds of Weird of the White Wolf; Marvel/Epic Comics), and Stormbringer (Dark Horse). The character has also been adapted by Walter Simonson, Frank Brunner, George Freeman, and others in the long-running Elric series at Pacific which Russell had co-created (reportedly tensions between him and Thomas were the reason for his departure).
 * Elric also appeared in a number of original stories published by DC Comics. Helix, a short-lived science-fiction and fantasy imprint of DC, published the 12-issue Michael Moorcock's Multiverse from 1997. In 2004, DC Comics published the four-issue Elric: Making of a Sorcerer, with art by Walter Simonson, a story about Elric's magical training before the events of the novel Elric of Melniboné.
 * 2011 marked the launch of another Elric-based comic, Elric: The Balance Lost by BOOM! Studios. The series, written by Chris Roberson and drawn by Francesco Biagini, is available in both traditional hard copy and for digital download.
 * In 2014, The Ruby Throne, the first volume of a new four-volume adaptation of Elric of Melniboné written by Julien Blondel and illustrated by Didier Poli, Jean Bastide, and Robin Recht, was published by Glenat in France and titan in UK. The second volume, Stormbringer, was published in March 2015 by the same team and publisher.  The third volume, entitled The White Wolf, was released in September 2017. The fourth volume, The Dreaming City, was released in August 2021. A second cycle of four tomes is beginning in 2024 with the release by GLÉNAT of ELRIC TOME 5 - LE NÉCROMANCIEN (The Necromancer), an adaptation of THE WEIRD OF THE WHITE WOLF by Julien Blondel and Jean-Luc Carradines Cano, with art by Valentin Sécher.

Music

 * The Chronicle of the Black Sword is a 1985 album by UK space rock band Hawkwind. Moorcock and Hawkwind had, at this stage, collaborated a number of times. An expanded live album, Live Chronicles, was released in 1986. This included several spoken-word interludes by author Moorcock in his capacity as on-stage narrator. The live show also included a mime artist portraying Elric himself. A video concert film entitled The Chronicle of the Black Sword appeared on VHS and later on DVD.
 * The song "Black Blade" was recorded for the album Cultösaurus Erectus (1980) by Blue Öyster Cult, written by singer/guitarist Eric Bloom with lyrics by Moorcock. Moorcock also collaborated on the songs "The Great Sun Jester" (Mirrors (1979)) and "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" (Fire of Unknown Origin (1981)).
 * The heavy metal band Tygers of Pan Tang take their name from the fictional islands of Pan Tang in the Elric series, where the ruling wizards keep pet tigers.
 * The UK space rock (later heavy metal) band Mournblade take their name from the sister-sword of Elric's blade Stormbringer.
 * New wave of British heavy metal band Diamond Head made Elric one of the primary lyrical subjects of their 1982 release Borrowed Time and featured the character on the cover art. Songs from this release were re-recorded by Metallica.
 * Blind Guardian, a German power metal band, included the song Fast to Madness in their 1989 album Follow the Blind, about Elric of Melniboné.* *
 * Italian Power Metal Band DOMINE have released 4 albums based heavily on Elric, namely "Champion Eternal" in 1997, "Dragonlord" in 1999, "Stormbringer Ruler" in 2002 and "Emperor of the Black Runes" in 2004.

Film

 * Wendy Pini published a book documenting her attempt to make an animated film project of the Stormbringer series, Law and Chaos: The "Stormbringer" Animated Film Project.
 * In May 2007, in an interview with Empire magazine, directors Chris and Paul Weitz stated that they were in the process of adapting a trilogy of films based on Elric for Universal Pictures. Chris grew up reading the material and has met with Moorcock, who trusted them with the project. Universal dropped the project and it is now in the hands of New Republic Pictures.

Television

 * In November 2019, New Republic announced the development of a television series based on the Elric novels, to be adapted by Glen Mazzara and Vaun Wilmott.

Role-playing games

 * Elric (along with Stormbringer) was listed in the first printing of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) Deities & Demigods rule book. However, Chaosium already had a role-playing series in the works based on Elric and Stormbringer, and the initial AD&D printing was not fully authorised. A mutually beneficial deal was worked out between Chaosium and TSR, yet TSR chose to remove Elric from later printings of Deities & Demigods.
 * The world of Elric's Young Kingdoms was the setting of the Stormbringer role-playing game by the publisher Chaosium (Hawkmoon has also been so treated, as has Corum). In 1993 Chaosium released Elric! which still used their BRP system.
 * After a disagreement between Moorcock and Chaosium, the Stormbringer line was discontinued. Subsequently, a new version called "Elric of Melniboné" was published by Mongoose Publishing under their Runequest system in 2007.

Video game
A video game based on Elric was in development by Haiku Studios and to be published by Psygnosis for the PlayStation during the late 1990s.

Critical response
Writing for NPR, Jason Sheehan calls Elric "far and away the coolest, grimmest, moodiest, most elegant, degenerate, drug-addicted, cursed, twisted and emotionally weird mass murderer of them all".

title: Elric of Melniboné


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Sangre de Cristo Range

The Sangre de Cristo Range is a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains in southern Colorado in the United States, running north and south along the east side of the Rio Grande Rift. The mountains extend southeast from Poncha Pass for about 75 mi through south-central Colorado to La Veta Pass, approximately 20 mi west of Walsenburg, and form a high ridge separating the San Luis Valley on the west from the watershed of the Arkansas River on the east. The Sangre de Cristo Range rises over 7000 ft above the valleys and plains to the west and northeast.

According to the USGS, the range is the northern part of the larger Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which extend through northern New Mexico. Usage of the terms "Sangre de Cristo Range" and "Sangre de Cristo Mountains" is varied; however, this article discusses only the mountains between Poncha Pass and La Veta Pass.

Notable peaks
A 14er is a mountain peak that has an elevation of at least 14,000 feet. Colorado has 53, the most of any state. There are 10 14ers in the Sangre de Cristo Range, which can be seen in the table below.

Geography
The Sangre de Cristo Mountains run from Poncha Pass in Central Colorado to Glorieta Pass near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Most of the range is shared by two National Forests, which abut along the range divide. Most of the northeast (Arkansas River) side is located within the San Isabel National Forest, while most of the southwest (San Luis Valley) side is included in the Rio Grande National Forest. The central part of the range is designated as the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness. The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve sits on the southwestern flank of the range at the edge of the San Luis Valley. The range divide is traversed by no paved roads, only by four-wheel drive and foot trails over Hayden Pass, Hermit Pass, Music Pass, Medano Pass, and Mosca Pass.

The highest peak in the range, located in the south, is Blanca Peak at 14345 ft; it is flanked by three other fourteeners: Little Bear Peak, Mount Lindsey, and Ellingwood Point. Other well-known peaks are the fourteeners of the Crestone group: Kit Carson Mountain, Crestone Peak, Crestone Needle, and Humboldt Peak. Two sub-peaks of Kit Carson Mountain, Challenger Point and Columbia Point, are named in memory of the crews of the Space Shuttle Challenger and the Space Shuttle Columbia. The range is also home to many high peaks in the 13,000 to 14,000 foot (3,900-4,300 m) range as it continues into New Mexico. In New Mexico most of the mountain area is managed by the US Forest Service in the Carson and Santa Fe National Forests.

Geology
The Colorado Sangre de Cristos are fault-block mountains similar to the Teton Range in Wyoming and the Wasatch Range in Utah. Major fault lines run along the east and west sides of the range, and cut right through the mountains in some places. Like all fault-block mountain ranges, the Sangre de Cristos lack foothills which means the highest peaks rise abruptly from the valleys to the east and west, rising 7000 ft in only a few miles in some places. The mountains were pushed up around 5 million years ago, basically as one large mass of rock. The Sangre de Cristo range is still being uplifted today as faults in the area remain active. Due to uplift (elevation increase) and erosion, rock layers are missing, causing gaps in the range, called "unconformities."

On the west side is the San Luis Valley, a portion of the Rio Grande Rift. On the southeast side is the Raton Basin, a quiet but still active volcanic field. On the northeast side are the Wet Mountains and the Front Range, areas of Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks formed during the Colorado orogeny some 1.7 billion years ago and then uplifted more recently during the Laramide orogeny.

The Blanca Massif is also Precambrian rock, while most of the rest of the Sangres is composed of younger Permian-Pennsylvanian (about 250-million-year-old) rock, a mix of sedimentary conglomerates, silty mudstones and shales, sandstones, limestone beds and igneous intrusions. These sedimentary rocks originated as sediment eroded from the Ancestral Rocky Mountains. Crestone Conglomerate are a feature on many of the peaks, including Crestone Needle. The conglomerate settled near the uplift and contains boulders as large as 6 feet in diameter.

History
Antonio Valverde y Cosio named the Sangre de Cristo range after the red-hue that he saw during the snowy sunrise. Sangre de Cristo means Blood of Christ in English.

In the formation of the range, we can see fossils of footprints, shells and bones.

In August 2009, the Sangre de Cristo Range was dedicated as a National Heritage Area (NHA), an area of cultural, natural, and historic preservation.

Economy
Today, tourism is the main economic activity.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Sangre de Cristo Range


text:
Rio Grande rift

The Rio Grande rift is a north-trending continental rift zone. It separates the Colorado Plateau in the west from the interior of the North American craton on the east. The rift extends from central Colorado in the north to the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, in the south. The rift zone consists of four basins that have an average width of 50 km. The rift can be observed on location at Rio Grande National Forest, White Sands National Park, Santa Fe National Forest, and Cibola National Forest, among other locations.

The Rio Grande rift has been an important site for humans for a long time, because it provides a north–south route that follows a major river. The Rio Grande follows the course of the rift from southern Colorado to El Paso, where it turns southeast and flows toward the Gulf of Mexico. Important cities, including Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos, Española, Las Cruces, El Paso, and Ciudad Juárez, lie within the rift.

Geology
The Rio Grande rift represents the easternmost manifestation of widespread extension in the western U.S. during the past 35 million years. The rift consists of three major basins and many smaller basins, less than 100 km2. The three major basins (from northernmost to southernmost) are the San Luis, Española, and Albuquerque basins. The rift's northern extent is delineated by the upper Arkansas River basin between Leadville and Salida, Colorado. Further south, the rift is defined by a network of smaller, less topographically distinct alternating basins and ranges. The distinction between these smaller basins and those of the Basin and Range Province becomes blurred in northern Mexico.

Basin size generally decreases to the north in the rift, though the Española covers approximately 120 km north–south and 40 km east–west, and the San Luis is roughly 120 by. These basins may contain smaller units within them, such as the Alamosa basin within the San Luis, which is bounded by the San Juan and Tusas mountains on the west and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the east. The Albuquerque basin is the largest of the three basins, spanning 160 km north–south and 86 km east–west at its widest points. It is the oldest of the three major basins, and contains 7,350 m of Paleogene clastic sediments deposited on Precambrian basement. The southernmost Albuquerque basin contains pre-rift volcanic deposits, while the central and northern portions contain volcanics erupted during rifting. In cross-section, the geometry of the basins within the rift are asymmetrical half-grabens, with major fault boundaries on one side and a downward hinge on the other. Which side of the basin has the major fault or the hinge alternates along the rift. The alternation between these half-grabens occurs along transfer faults, which trend across the rift to connect the major basin-bounding faults and occur between basins or, in places, within basins. The Precambrian basement changes relief sharply in this area, from 8700 m below sea level at the bottom of the Albuquerque basin to 3300 m above sea level in the nearby Sandia Mountains, which flanks the Albuquerque basin to the east. Flanking mountains are generally taller along the east side of the rift (although some of this relief may be Laramide in origin). The thickness of the crust increases to the north beneath the rift, where it may be as much as 5 km thicker than it is in the south. The crustal thickness underneath the rift is on average 30 –, thinner by 10 – than the Colorado Plateau on the west and the Great Plains to the east.

Formation of the rift began with significant deformation and faulting with offsets of many kilometers starting about 35 Ma. The largest-scale manifestation of rifting involves a pure-shear rifting mechanism, in which both sides of the rift pull apart evenly and slowly, with the lower crust and upper mantle (the lithosphere) stretching like taffy. This extension is associated with very low seismic velocities in the upper mantle above approximately 400 km depth associated with relatively hot mantle and low degrees of partial melting. This intrusion of the asthenosphere into the lithosphere and continental crust is thought to be responsible for nearly all of the volcanism associated with the Rio Grande rift.

The sedimentary fill of the basins consists largely of alluvial fan and mafic volcanic flows. The most alkalic lavas erupted outside the rift. The sediments that were deposited during rifting are commonly known as the Santa Fe Group. This group contains sandstones, conglomerates, and volcanics. Aeolian deposits are also present in some basins.

The Rio Grande rift is intersected in northern New Mexico by the NE-SW trending Jemez Lineament which extends well into Arizona. The lineament is defined by aligned volcanic fields and several calderas in the area, including the Valles Caldera National Preserve in the Jemez Mountains. The Jemez Lineament is thought to be a hydrous subduction zone scar, separating Precambrian basement rock of the Yavapai-Mazatzal transition zone from the Mazaztl Province proper. Also on the Colorado Plateau but further north lies the San Juan volcanic field in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado.

The youngest eruptions in the rift region are in the Valley of Fires, New Mexico, and are approximately 5,400 years old. The Socorro, New Mexico, region of the central rift hosts an inflating mid-crustal sill-like magma body at a depth of 19 km that is responsible for anomalously high earthquake activity in the vicinity, including the largest rift-associated earthquakes in historic times (two events of approximately magnitude 5.8) in July and November 1906. Earth and space-based geodetic measurements indicate ongoing surface uplift above the Socorro magma body at approximately 2 mm/year.

Geologic history
The Rio Grande rift's tectonic evolution is fairly complex. The fundamental change in the western margin of the North American plate from one of subduction to a transform boundary occurred during Cenozoic time. The Farallon plate continued to be subducted beneath western North America for at least 100 million years during Late Mesozoic and early Cenozoic time. Compressional and transpressional deformation incurred by the Laramide Orogeny lasted until about 40 Ma in New Mexico. This deformation may have been a result of the coupling between the subducting Farallon plate and the overlying North American plate. Crustal thickening occurred due to Laramide compression. After the Laramide Orogeny and until 20 Ma, a major period of volcanic activity occurred throughout the southwestern United States. Injection of hot magmas weakened the lithosphere and allowed for later extension of the region.

Cenozoic extension started about 30 million years ago (Ma). There are two phases of extension observed: late Oligocene and middle Miocene. The first period of extension produced broad, shallow basins bounded by low-angle faults. The crust may have been extended as much as 50% during this episode. Widespread magmatism in mid-Cenozoic time suggests that the lithosphere was hot, the brittle-ductile transition was relatively shallow. There is evidence that the second period of extension began earlier in the central and northern Rio Grande rift than in the south. A third period of extension may have begun in the early Pliocene.

One theory is that the Colorado Plateau acts as a semi-independent microplate and one way of explaining the creation of the Rio Grande rift is by the simple rotation of the Colorado Plateau 1-1.5° in a clockwise direction relative to the North American craton. Other explanations that have been offered are that the extension is driven by mantle forces, such as large-scale mantle upwelling or small-scale mantle convection at the edge of the stable craton; collapse of over-thickened continental crust; initiation of transform faulting along the western margin of the North American plate; or detachment of a fragment of the Farallon plate beneath the Rio Grande region that enhanced asthenospheric upwelling in the slab window.

title: Rio Grande rift


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Vancouver Island

Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is 456 km in length, 100 km in width at its widest point, and 32100 km2 in total area, while 31285 km2 are of land. The island is the largest by area and the most populous along the west coasts of the Americas.

The southern part of Vancouver Island and some of the nearby Gulf Islands are the only parts of British Columbia or Western Canada to lie south of the 49th parallel. The southeast part of the island has one of the warmest climates in Canada, and since the mid-1990s has been mild enough in a few areas to grow Mediterranean crops such as olives and lemons.

The population of Vancouver Island was 864,864 as of 2021. Nearly half of that population (~400,000) live in the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria on the southern tip of the island, which includes Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. Other notable cities and towns on Vancouver Island include Nanaimo, Campbell River, Courtenay, Port Alberni and Parksville, all on or near the east coast.

Indigenous peoples have inhabited Vancouver Island for thousands of years, long before the arrival of Spanish and British naval expeditions in the late 18th century. The Spanish and British conjointly named it Quadra's and Vancouver's Island in commemoration of the friendly negotiations held in 1792 between the Spanish commander of Fort San Miguel in Nootka Sound, Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, and British naval captain George Vancouver, during the Nootka Crisis. (Bodega y Quadra's name was eventually dropped.) It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, who between 1791 and 1794 explored the Pacific Northwest.

Vancouver Island is the world's 43rd largest island, Canada's 11th largest island, and Canada's second most populous island after the Island of Montreal.

Indigenous peoples
Vancouver Island has been the homeland of many indigenous peoples for thousands of years. The groupings, by language, are the Kwakwakaʼwakw (also known as the Kwakiutl), Nuu-chah-nulth, and various Coast Salish peoples. While there is some overlap, Kwakwakaʼwakw territory includes northern and northwestern Vancouver Island and adjoining areas of the mainland, the Nuu-chah-nulth span most of the west coast, while the Coast Salish cover the southeastern Island and southernmost extremities along the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Their cultures are connected to the natural resources abundant in the area.

Kwakwakaʼwakw

The Kwakwakaʼwakw today number about 5,500, who live in British Columbia on northern Vancouver Island and the mainland. They are also known as Kwakiutl in English, from one of their tribes, but they prefer their autonym Kwakwakaʼwakw. Their indigenous language, part of the Wakashan family, is Kwakʼwala. The name Kwakwakaʼwakw means "speakers of Kwakʼwala". The language is now spoken by less than 5% of the population—about 250 people. Today, 17 separate tribes make up the Kwakwakaʼwakw. Some Kwakwakaʼwakw groups are now extinct. Kwakʼwala is a Northern Wakashan language, a grouping shared with Haisla, Heiltsuk and Wuikyala. Kwakwakaʼwakw centres of population on Vancouver Island include communities such as Fort Rupert, Alert Bay and Quatsino, The Kwakwakaʼwakw tradition of the potlatch was banned by the federal government of Canada in 1885, but has been revived in recent decades.

Nuu-chah-nulth
The Nuu-chah-nulth (pronounced [nuːʧanˀuɬ]), are indigenous peoples in Canada. Their traditional home is on the west coast of Vancouver Island. In pre-contact and early post-contact times, the number of nations was much greater, but as in the rest of the region, smallpox and other consequences of contact resulted in the disappearance of some groups and the absorption of others into neighbouring groups.

They were among the first Pacific peoples north of California to come into contact with Europeans, as the Spanish, Americans and British attempted to secure control of the Pacific Northwest and the trade in otter pelts, with Nootka Sound becoming a focus of these rivalries. The Nuu-chah-nulth speak a Southern Wakashan language and are closely related to the Makah of the Olympic Peninsula, Washington state and the Ditidaht.

Coast Salish
The Coast Salish are the largest of the southern groups. They are a loose grouping of many tribes with numerous distinct cultures and historically speak one of the Coast Salish languages. On Vancouver Island, Coast Salish peoples' territory traditionally spans from the northern limit of the Strait of Georgia on the east side of Vancouver Island and covers most of southern Vancouver Island. Distinct nations within the Coast Salish peoples on Vancouver Island include the Stz'uminus, the Kʼómoks of the Comox Valley area, the Cowichan of the Cowichan Valley, the Esquimalt, the Saanich of the Saanich Peninsula, the Songhees of the Victoria area and Snuneymuxw in the Nanaimo area.

European exploration
Europeans began to explore the island in 1774 when rumours of Russian fur traders caused Spain to send a number of expeditions to assert its long-held claims to the Pacific Northwest. The first expedition was that of the Santiago, under the command of Juan José Pérez Hernández. In 1775, a second Spanish expedition under the Spanish Peruvian captain Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra was sent. By 1776, Spanish exploration had reached Bucareli Bay including the mouth of the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington, and Sitka Sound.

Vancouver Island came to the attention of Britain after the third voyage of Captain James Cook, who spent a month during 1778 at Nootka Sound, on the island's western coast. Cook claimed it for Great Britain. Maritime fur trader, John Meares arrived in 1786 and set up a single-building trading post near the native village of Yuquot (Friendly Cove), at the entrance to Nootka Sound in 1788. The fur trade began expanding into the island, eventually leading to permanent settlement.

Dispute over sovereignty
The island was further explored by Spain in 1789 with Esteban José Martínez, who established the settlement of Yuquot and the artillery battery of Fort San Miguel at Friendly Cove, which Spain called Puerto de San Lorenzo de Nuca. This was to be the only Spanish settlement in what would later be Canada. Asserting their claim of exclusive sovereignty and navigation rights, the Spanish force seized the Portuguese-flagged British ships.

British naval captain George Vancouver was sent to Nootka Sound in 1792 in order to negotiate a settlement. His Spanish counterpart in the negotiations was Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, who was commandant of Santa Cruz de Nuca in 1792. Vancouver had sailed as a midshipman with Cook. The negotiations between Vancouver and Bodega y Quadra ended in a deadlock with nothing resolved. Vancouver insisted the entire Spanish establishment be turned over, but Bodega y Quadra held that there were no buildings seized in 1789, and the only possible land was a tiny and useless cove nearby. The two decided to refer the entire matter back to their respective governments. The friendly meeting between Bodega y Quadra and Vancouver led the former to propose that the island be named after both: "Quadra and Vancouver Island", which became the original name. While we know this island today as "Vancouver Island", the British explorer had not intentionally meant to name such a large body of land solely after himself. In his September 1792 dispatch log report for the British Admiralty, Captain Vancouver reveals that his decision here was rather meant to honour a request by Bodega y Quadra that Vancouver:
 * "would name some port or island after us both in commemoration of our meeting and friendly intercourse that on that occasion had taken place (Vancouver had previously feted Bodega y Quadra on his ship);....and conceiving no place more eligible than the place of our meeting, I have therefore named this land...The Island of Quadra and Vancouver."

Bodega y Quadra wrote, however, that it was Vancouver who made the suggestion of combining their names to designate some geographical feature.

In 1792, the Spanish explorer Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and his crew were the first Europeans to circumnavigate Vancouver Island. On April 8, 1806, Captain John D'Wolf of Bristol, Rhode Island, sailed the Juno to Nahwitti (Newettee), a small inlet in the northwestern promontory of Vancouver's Island. The captain described Newettee as one of the southernmost harbours frequented by American fur traders at 51 degrees north and 128 degrees west. He relates that since Captain Robert Gray of Tiverton, Rhode Island, had sailed the Columbia River in 1792, the trade of the northwest coast had been almost entirely in the hands of Boston merchants, so much so that the natives called all traders "Boston Men".

A settlement was not successfully negotiated and ownership of the island remained in dispute between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Spanish Empire in the early 1790s. The two countries nearly began a war over the issue; the confrontation became known as the Nootka Crisis. That was averted when both agreed to recognize the other's rights to the area in the first Nootka Convention in 1790, a first step to peace. Finally, the two countries signed the second Nootka Convention in 1793 and the third Convention in 1794. As per that final agreement, the Spanish dismantled their fort at Nootka and left the area, giving the British sovereignty over Vancouver Island and the adjoining islands (including the Gulf Islands).

For decades, Quadra's and Vancouver's Island was the most prominent name on maps of the coast, and appeared on most British, French and Spanish maps of the period. But as Spanish interests in the region dwindled, so did the use of Bodega y Quadra's name. The Hudson's Bay Company played a major part in the transition; by 1824 'Vancouver's Island' had become the usual designation in its correspondence for the island.

A quarter of a century later, Vancouver Island had become such a well-known geographical feature that the founding of the Colony of Vancouver Island in 1849 gave this name full official status. Period references to "Vancouver" referred to Vancouver Island until the naming of the city of Vancouver in 1885.

British settlement

By March 1843, James Douglas of the Hudson's Bay Company and a missionary had arrived and selected an area for settlement. Construction of the fort began in June of that year. This settlement was a fur trading post originally named Fort Albert (afterward Fort Victoria). The fort was located at the Songhees settlement of Camosack (Camosun), 200 m northwest of the present-day Empress Hotel on Victoria's Inner Harbour.

In 1846, the Oregon Treaty, which ended the Oregon boundary dispute, was signed by the British and the United States to settle the question of the U.S. Oregon Country borders. The Treaty made the 49th parallel latitude north the official border between the two countries. In order to ensure that Britain retained all of Vancouver Island and the southern Gulf Islands, however, it was agreed that the border would swing south around that area.

In 1849, the Colony of Vancouver Island was established. The Colony was leased to the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) for an annual fee of seven shillings; the company's responsibility in return was to increase the population by promoting colonization. The first independent settler arrived that year: Captain Walter Grant started a homestead in Sooke. Following the brief governorship of Richard Blanshard, James Douglas, Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay post, assumed the role in 1851.

The island's first legislative assembly was formed in 1856. Government buildings were built and were occupied in 1859; the replacement, today's Parliament Buildings, were opened in 1898.

Fort Victoria had become an important base when prospectors, miners and merchants began arriving for the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush in 1858. The Hudson's Bay lease expired in 1859 and the island reverted to Great Britain. The burgeoning town was incorporated as Victoria in 1862. Victoria became the capital of the colony of Vancouver Island, retaining this status when the island was amalgamated with the mainland in 1866.

A British naval base, including Esquimalt Royal Navy Dockyard and a naval hospital, was established at Esquimalt in 1865 and eventually taken over by the Canadian military. Today, as CFB Esquimalt, it is the home port of the Maritime Forces Pacific and parts are designated as National Historic Sites of Canada.

Union and Confederation
The economic situation of the colony declined following the Cariboo Gold Rush of 1861–1862, and pressure grew for amalgamation of the colony with the mainland colony of British Columbia (which had been established in 1858). The two colonies were merged in 1866 into the United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia by the Act for the Union of the colonies, passed by the Imperial Parliament. Arthur Kennedy was appointed governor of the united entity. (He would leave office in 1866 and later became Governor of the West African Settlements, British West Africa.) Victoria became the capital but the legislative assembly was located in New Westminster on the Lower Mainland. The capital was moved to Victoria in 1868.

Confederation
By 1867, Canada was established by the first of the British North America Acts, the Constitution Act, 1867 and the United Colonies joined Canada on 20 July 1871 through the British Columbia Terms of Union, following negotiations that secured the interests of the colonial elite in relation to a rail connection that would unite the colonies with the rest of Canada, establish Indian lands policy that would effectively perpetuate BC's pre-Confederation practices, and enshrine colonial officials' security of position. Victoria was named the capital of the province of British Columbia. Three delegates were appointed to the federal government.

Geography
Vancouver Island is located in the southwestern corner of the province of British Columbia. It is separated from the mainland of British Columbia by Johnstone Strait and Queen Charlotte Strait on the north and northeast, and by the Strait of Georgia on the southeast, which along with the Strait of Juan de Fuca along its southwest separate it from the United States. West of the island is the open Pacific Ocean, while to its north is Queen Charlotte Sound. The Straits of Georgia and Juan de Fuca are now officially part of the Salish Sea, which also includes Puget Sound.

The Vancouver Island Ranges run most of the length of the island, dividing it into a wet and rugged west coast and a drier, more rolling east coast. The highest point in these ranges and on the island is the Golden Hinde, at 2195 m. Located near the centre of Vancouver Island in 2500 km2 Strathcona Provincial Park, it is part of a group of peaks that include the only glaciers on the island, the largest of which is the Comox Glacier. The west coast shoreline is rugged and in many places mountainous, characterized by its many fjords, bays, and inlets. The interior of the island has many lakes (Kennedy Lake, north of Ucluelet, is the largest) and rivers.

The 49th parallel north crosses the island just north of Ladysmith on the east and Ucluelet on the west.

Southern Vancouver Island is typically considered to refer to the area south of Courtenay, while Northern Vancouver Island generally refers to the area north of Campbell River. Those cities and the area between them are sometimes described as "Mid-Island" or "Central Island".

Lakes
• Amedroz Lake

• Arum Lake

• Beaufort Lake

• Bewlay Lake

• Brewster Lake

• Buttle Lake

• Cameron Lake

• Capes Lake

• Comox Lake

• Cowichan Lake

• Darlington Lake

• Elk Lake

• Elsie Lake

• Forbush Lake

• Globe Flower Lake

• Great Central Lake

• Hellebore Lake

• Horne Lake

• Hucuktlis Lake

• John Hart Lake

• Kennedy Lake

• Kildonan Lake

• Kim Lake

• Lake Beautiful

• Lake Helen Mackenzie

• Lizard Lake (Capital Regional District)

• Lizard Lake (Williams Creek)

• Lower Campbell Lake

• Nahmint Lake

• Nanaimo Lakes

• Nimpkish Lake

• Nitinat Lake

• Quamichan Lake

• Ralph Lake

• Sarita Lake

• Shawnigan Lake

• Somenos Lake

• Sooke Lake

• Sproat Lake

• Thetis Lake

• Upper Campbell Lake

Rivers
There are a number of rivers draining the island, some of which though short are large in volume. Among the more notable rivers are the Somass River in the Alberni Valley, the Nimpkish River in the North Island region, the Englishman River up island from Nanaimo near Parksville, and the Cowichan River whose basin forms the Cowichan Valley region in the South Island region.

Climate
The climate of Vancouver Island is the mildest in Canada, with temperatures on the coast even in January being usually above 0 C. In summer, the warmest days usually have a maximum of 28 - 33 C. The southeastern part of the island notably has a warm summer (Csb) Mediterranean climate with numerous vineyards.

The rain shadow effect of the island's mountains, as well as the mountains of Washington's Olympic Peninsula, creates wide variation in precipitation. The west coast is considerably wetter than the east coast. Average annual precipitation ranges from 6650 mm at Hucuktlis Lake on the west coast (making it the wettest place in North America) to only 608 mm at Victoria Gonzales, the driest recording station in the provincial capital of Victoria. Precipitation is heaviest in the autumn and winter. Snow is rare at low altitudes, but is common on the island's mountaintops in winter. Skiing is popular at Mount Washington in the mid-island, with an elevation of 1588 m.

A notable feature of Vancouver Island is the extension of summer dryness to latitudes as high as 50 °N. Only in the extreme north of the island near Port Hardy is the rainfall of the driest summer month as much as one fifth that of the wettest months from November to March. West coasts of other continents at similar latitudes have a practically even distribution of rainfall throughout the year.

Geology
Vancouver Island is mostly made up of volcanic and sedimentary rock which were formed offshore on the now disappeared Kula oceanic plate. Around 55 million years ago during the Paleogene Period, a microplate of the Kula Plate subducted below the North American continental margin with great strain. A volcanic arc on the surface of the Kula Plate was thus accreted and fused onto the western edge of North America. These terranes were subjected to extreme warping from continued subduction of the Kula plate, leading to the formation of the distorted Insular Mountains. Much of the central mountainous region around Strathcona Park is part of the Karmutsen Formation, which is a sequence of tholeiitic pillow basalts and breccias. Since Vancouver Island has become an accretionary wedge on the North American continent, the Kula Plate has fully subducted beneath it and the remnants of the Farallon Plate, the Juan de Fuca Plate, are now subducting below the island. This process has led to Vancouver Island being one of the most seismically active regions in Canada. The subduction zone off the coast of the island forms a section of the Ring of Fire. The area has been known to host megathrust earthquakes in the past, the last being the Cascadia earthquake of 1700. The Forbidden Plateau, in the east of the Vancouver Island Ranges, was the epicentre of the 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake that registered 7.3 on the moment magnitude scale, the strongest ever recorded on land in Canada.

Vancouver Island was the location of the observation of the episodic tremor and slip (ETS) seismic phenomenon.

Ecology
Vancouver Island lies in the temperate rainforest biome. On the southern and eastern portions of the island, this is characterized by Douglas fir, western red cedar, arbutus (or madrone), Garry oak, salal, Oregon grape, and manzanita; moreover, Vancouver Island is the location where the Douglas fir was first recorded by Archibald Menzies. Vancouver Island is also the location where some of the tallest Douglas fir were recorded. This southeastern portion of the island is the most heavily populated region of Vancouver Island and a major area for recreation. The northern, western, and most of the central portions of the island are home to the coniferous "big trees" associated with British Columbia's coast – western hemlock, western red cedar, Pacific silver fir, yellow cedar, Douglas fir, grand fir, Sitka spruce, and western white pine. It is also characterised by bigleaf maple, red alder, sword fern, and red huckleberry.

The fauna of Vancouver Island is similar to that found on the mainland coast, with some notable exceptions and additions. For example, mountain goats, moose, coyotes, porcupines, skunks, chipmunks, and numerous species of small mammals, while plentiful on the mainland, are absent from Vancouver Island. Grizzly bears are absent from the island, where black bears are prevalent, but in 2016, a pair of grizzlies were sighted swimming between smaller islands off the coast near Port McNeill. Vancouver Island does support most of Canada's Roosevelt elk, however, and several mammal species and subspecies, such as the Vancouver Island marmot are unique to the island. Columbian black-tailed deer are plentiful, even in suburban areas such as in Greater Victoria, as well as the native Douglas squirrels. The Eastern grey squirrel is found in the south and is considered invasive for its voracious appetite and scaring away of the Douglas squirrels. The island has the most concentrated population of cougars in North America. The Vancouver Island wolf, a subspecies of grey wolf, is found only on the north part of the island. Harbour seals and river otters are common.

Resident orcas live in two major groups, one in the waters of the south island and one in the north, while a third group of transient orcas roam much farther and avoid the resident orcas. Residents are watched from a distance and are numbered, with many being named as well. Humpback whales and gray whales are often seen on their migration between Alaskan waters where they feed in the summer and southern waters such as around California and Mexico where they give birth in the winter.

The island's rivers, lakes, and coastal regions are renowned for their fisheries of trout, salmon, and steelhead.

After near-total extirpation by fur traders in the 18th and 19th centuries, sea otters (Enhydra lutris) were protected by an international treaty in 1911. Despite protection, the remnant population off Vancouver Island died out with the last sea otter taken near Kyuquot in 1929. From 1969 to 1972, 89 sea otters were flown or shipped from Alaska to the west coast of Vancouver Island. This population expanded to over 3,000, and their range on the island's west coast expanded from Cape Scott in the north to Barkley Sound to the south.

Demographics
The majority of Vancouver Island's population lives in the Capital Regional District, more specifically in the primate city and the provincial capital of Victoria. With a population of 397,237 (2021), Greater Victoria is the island's largest population centre and one of its two census metropolitan areas. The island's other metropolitan area is Nanaimo, which has a population of 115,459 as of 2021. There are also five census agglomeration areas (Alberni Valley, Campbell River, Comox Valley, Cowichan Valley, and Oceanside) as defined by Statistics Canada.

Technology
Within the island's largest city, Victoria, there is a significant IT and technology industry. According to the Victoria Advanced Technology Council website, over 800 technology companies operate in the Victoria area, with combined annual revenues of $1.95 billion.

High-speed internet is delivered to the island by Shaw Communications, Telus, and various local providers with their own networks. Wireless Internet connections can be found all over the island, many free for public use.

While the island does generate much of its own power at several hydroelectric stations, increased demand required the construction of several high-voltage power cables, both HVDC and AC, connecting to the Canadian Mainland.

Logging
Outside of Victoria, Vancouver Island's economy is largely dominated by the forestry industry. Many of the logging operations are for export, although, historically, were for sawn lumber and pulp and paper operations. Recently, rotations are much shorter than the historical 80 years. Logging operations involving old-growth forests such as those found in Clayoquot Sound are controversial and, due to the Clayoquot protests, gained international attention through the efforts of activists and environmental organizations. Another source of controversy all over the island are logging operations occurring in community watersheds.

Fishing
Fishing plays a large role in the lives of many islanders. Commercial fishing vessels operate out of the island's ports and harbours, and coastal fish farms produce many tons of Atlantic salmon yearly.

Tourism

In recent years the government of British Columbia has engaged in an advertising program to draw more tourists to beach resorts in places such as Tofino and Ucluelet. Sport fishing, whale watching, hiking, scuba diving, surfing, and skiing are just a few things for which tourists visit Vancouver Island. Visitors also come to see Victoria's 19th-century architecture, and the many villages which line the coast such as Cowichan Bay, Chemainus, and Qualicum Beach.

Food products
Consumer food products companies also exist in the various cities and towns on Vancouver Island. Bakeries, dairies, food processing plants, breweries, wineries, of varying size and scope, are found all along the island. Some of these organizations have international customer reach.

Agriculture is confined primarily to the fertile soils found in low-lying areas on the southern and eastern portions of the island. Those areas have the best climate for agricultural production.

The total amount of land farmed on Vancouver Island in 2016 was over 50,000 hectares and the region employed over 7,500 people in the agricultural sector (both farm operators and employees) in 2016.

Education
Vancouver Island is home to a handful of universities, several colleges and trade-schools, hundreds of public schools, and a few dozen private schools (including Montessori and Waldorf schools).

Universities

 * University of Victoria
 * Vancouver Island University (formerly Malaspina University-College)
 * Royal Roads University

Colleges

 * Camosun College
 * North Island College
 * Pacific Horticulture College

Public school districts
There are 12 school districts on Vancouver Island with several elementary, junior high, and high schools in each. Three school districts are in the Greater Victoria area and the other eight cover the rest of the island to the north. All public schooling falls under the jurisdiction of the British Columbia Ministry of Education.

 * Greater Victoria
 * Nanaimo-Ladysmith
 * Sooke
 * Qualicum
 * Saanich
 * Alberni
 * Gulf Islands
 * Comox Valley
 * Campbell River
 * Vancouver Island West
 * Cowichan Valley
 * Vancouver Island North

Sea
Marine transport is very important to Vancouver Island for access to the mainland of British Columbia and Washington. There are no bridges connecting the island to the mainland, although the idea of building one has been brought up many times. Major technical issues and cost are the largest barriers to a bridge currently though exact public support for the idea is not currently known. The only vehicle access to Vancouver Island is by ferry. BC Ferries, Washington State Ferries and Puget Sound Navigation Company (Black Ball Transport) operate the seven-vehicle ferry routes to the island.

In the 1860s a plan was started to link Vancouver Island to the mainland at Bute Inlet, by a bridge, using Ripple Rock as a mid-support for the bridge. This plan continued through the years, and caused political opposition to destroying Ripple Rock until it was decided to destroy the rock to improve safety for mariners.

BC Ferries

 * Tsawwassen (38 km south of Vancouver) – Swartz Bay (32 km north of Victoria)
 * Crossing time: 1 hour 35 minutes; 8 sailings per day year-round with added sailings depending on day and season)

 * Tsawwassen – Duke Point (13 km south of Nanaimo)
 * Crossing time: 2 hours; 8 round trips daily – varies in winter.

 * Horseshoe Bay (19 km northwest of Vancouver) – Departure Bay (3 km north of downtown Nanaimo)
 * Crossing time: 1 hour 35 minutes; Sailings every 2 hours with extra sailings during the summer and holidays.

 * Gulf Islands – Swartz Bay
 * Crossing time: 35 minutes- 3 hours depending on island of departure; 4 or more trips daily.

 * Powell River – Comox
 * Crossing time: 1 hour 20 minutes; 4 round trips daily.

 * Port Hardy – Prince Rupert
 * Service daily or on alternate days; changes seasonally.

Washington State Ferries

 * Anacortes, Washington – Sidney
 * Crossing time: 2 hours (not counting stops in the San Juan Islands)
 * Note that this ferry service is inactive.
 * According to the Washington State Department of Transport: International service to and from Sidney, B.C. remains suspended until further notice due to continued significant crewing and vessel availability challenges. There will be no service to and from Sidney through at least Spring of 2030.

Black Ball Transport

 * Port Angeles, Washington – Victoria
 * Crossing time: 1 hour 30 minutes; 1 to 4 round trips daily; changes seasonally.

Passenger-only service
In addition, there is a passenger-only ferry service from the mainland to Vancouver Island:
 * Victoria Clipper (Seattle, Washington – Victoria)
 * Crossing time: 2 hour 45 minutes; 1 to 3 round trips daily

 * In the past, several private operators have run ferries between Nanaimo and Vancouver. Despite the operations repeatedly going bankrupt, there is still popular interest and in August of 2023 Hullo Ferries commenced operations between Nanaimo and Vancouver

Rail
Island Corridor Foundation (ICF) was established in 2006 for the purpose of owning and managing the former Esquimalt and Nanaimo (E&N) Rail Corridor on Vancouver Island now known as the Island Rail Corridor. The ICF established a contract with Southern Railway of British Columbia (SRY) to move all rail freight on the Island to and from the Lower Mainland. SRY assumed operational control from RailAmerica in July 2006 and currently only offers local freight service on the Nanaimo segment of the Victoria–Courtenay mainline (called the Victoria Subdivision by the railroad). The Port Alberni branch line (called the Port Alberni Subdivision by the railroad) has been out of service since 2002. Passenger service, which had been operated by VIA Rail under contract, was halted in 2011 after it was identified that a portion of the line failed to meet operating requirements for passenger service. Since then, there have been ongoing efforts to secure funding from various levels of government to complete the necessary repairs, but the issue remains fluid.

Western Forest Products operated the Englewood Railway which was Canada's last logging railway, running from Woss to Beaver Cove on the northern end of the island. The former Canadian National Railway line running from Victoria to the Cowichan Valley was abandoned in the late 1980s/early 1990s, and the former grade between Victoria and Sooke is now the multi-use Galloping Goose Regional Trail. The BC Forest Discovery Centre has a narrow-gauge railway winding around the park, and the Alberni Pacific Railway operates a tour train during the summer from the restored E&N Railway station in Port Alberni to the McLean's Mill on former E&N Railway trackage that is now owned by the ICF.

Road
There is one major north–south highway system on the island, which runs along the eastern side. It begins in Victoria as Highway 1 which is part of the Trans-Canada Highway system as far as Nanaimo. There, Highway 19 takes over and continues to Port Hardy. The route is a patchwork of two-, four-, and six-lane roadways between Victoria and Port Hardy. The engineering characteristics and traffic control systems of the roadway vary widely from one city or district to the next and include the following variations:

Trans-Canada Highway:
 * 1) Congested, heavily signalized four-lane urban core streets with heavy pedestrian activity in Victoria and Duncan.
 * 2) Short four- to six-lane freeways with interchanges just west of Victoria and just south of Nanaimo.
 * 3) A mix of two-lane to four-lane winding mountain arterial highway over the Malahat pass.
 * 4) A moderate to heavily signalized four-lane divided arterial highway from Mill Bay to Nanaimo (interrupted by the Duncan urban core).

Highway 19:
 * 1) A moderately signalized expressway called the Nanaimo Parkway bypassing Nanaimo.
 * 2) A lightly signalized four-lane divided arterial highway from Nanaimo to Parksville.
 * 3) A stretch of four-lane high-speed freeway/expressway from Parksville to Campbell River.
 * 4) A moderate-speed two-lane arterial highway north from Campbell River to Port Hardy.

Proposals have been made for a mainland-to-island fixed link for over a century. Because of the extreme depth and soft seabed of the Georgia Strait, and the potential for seismic activity, a bridge or tunnel would face monumental engineering, safety, and environmental challenges at a prohibitive cost.

Another north–south route is Highway 17 a four-lane divided highway that has a mix of interchanges and traffic lights. It connects Victoria with the Saanich Peninsula, terminating the Vancouver Island portion of its route at the Swartz Bay ferry terminal.

The main east–west routes are mostly two-lane but are generally free of the congestion seen on some of the four-lane highways. They comprise the following:
 * Highway 4 between Qualicum Beach and Tofino;
 * Highway 14 between Greater Victoria and Port Renfrew;
 * Highway 18 between Duncan and Lake Cowichan;
 * Highway 28 between Campbell River and Gold River; and
 * Highway 30 between Port McNeill and Port Alice.

Vancouver Island is also well served by secondary routes, a growing number of which have efficient roundabouts in place of the traffic lights that can back up traffic on the main highway routes. Numerous active and decommissioned logging and forest service roads provide access to the backcountry.

Many communities are served by public and private transit. Greater Victoria is one of the few places in North America where double-decker buses are used in the regular public transit system. Tofino Bus All Island Express serves all major cities on Vancouver Island.

Air
There are 52 certified airports, registered aerodromes and heliports on Vancouver Island. This number includes seven aerodromes and airports in Greater Victoria.

Victoria International Airport,, is the major airport on Vancouver Island. In 2018, it was the 11th busiest airport in Canada in terms of passenger movements (1,924,385). As of 2020, carriers include Air Canada Express, Air Canada Rouge, Air North, Alaska Airlines, Pacific Coastal Airlines, WestJet and WestJet Encore. They offer a variety of direct flights of short and medium distances including to and from Seattle, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Whitehorse and Toronto. Air Canada Rouge, Pacific Coastal Airlines, Sunwing Airlines, Swoop and WestJet offer seasonal services to several destinations including Mexico.

Other land-based airports with scheduled services are Campbell River, CFB Comox, (Comox Valley Airport), Nanaimo, Port Hardy, Qualicum Beach and Tofino/Long Beach. In addition, there are seven water airports with scheduled services, Campbell River, Comox, Nanaimo Harbour, Port Alberni, Tofino Harbour, Victoria and Victoria Inner Harbour.

Much of the floatplane traffic is downtown-to-downtown service between Victoria Inner Harbour, Nanaimo Harbour and Vancouver Harbour, the primary carriers being Harbour Air Seaplanes, Seair Seaplanes and Corilair. Harbour Air also flies to other areas around Vancouver, service to Kenmore Air Harbor Seaplane Base on Seattle's Lake Union is provided by Kenmore Air. Smaller airlines include Tofino Air, Pacific Seaplanes and Sunshine Coast Air. These carriers make several daily scheduled flights, weather permitting. Helicopter service is provided by Helijet in Victoria and various private operators elsewhere.

title: Vancouver Island


text:
Natal (province)

The Province of Natal (Natalprovinsie), commonly called Natal, was a province of South Africa from May 1910 until May 1994. Its capital was Pietermaritzburg. During this period rural areas inhabited by the black African population of Natal were organized into the bantustan of KwaZulu, which was progressively separated from the province, becoming partially autonomous in 1981. Of the white population, the majority were English-speaking people of British descent, causing Natal to become the only province to vote "No" to the creation of a republic in the referendum of 1960, due to very strong monarchist, pro-British Commonwealth, and anti-secessionist sentiment. In the latter part of the 1980s, Natal was in a state of violence between the Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress, with violence subsiding soon after the first non-racial election in 1994.

In 1994, the KwaZulu bantustan was reincorporated into the territory of Natal and the province was redesignated as KwaZulu-Natal.

Districts in 1991
Districts of the province and population at the time of the 1991 census.

 * Mount Currie (main town Kokstad): 41,564
 * Alfred (main town Harding): 8,794
 * Port Shepstone: 67,239
 * Umzinto: 46,919
 * Ixopo: 22,626
 * Polela: 4,364
 * Underberg: 9,584
 * Impendle: 2,815
 * Richmond: 23,476
 * Camperdown: 36,315
 * Pietermaritzburg: 228,549
 * Lions River: 43,060
 * New Hanover: 38,207
 * Mooirivier: 25,061
 * Estcourt: 49,493
 * Weenen: 12,485
 * Bergville: 22,552
 * Umvoti (main town Greytown): 41,160
 * Kranskop: 7,565
 * Durban: 473,826
 * Inanda (main town Verulam): 299,379
 * Pinetown: 184,216
 * Chatsworth: 179,957
 * Kliprivier: 64,782
 * Glencoe: 17,265
 * Dundee: 31,613
 * Dannhauser: 14,154
 * Newcastle: 53,584
 * Utrecht: 27,798
 * Paulpietersburg: 21,072
 * Vryheid: 85,518
 * Ngotshe: 26,382
 * Lower Tugela (main town Stanger): 96,702
 * Mtunzini: 18,455
 * Eshowe: 13,355
 * Mtonjaneni (main town Melmoth): 10,577
 * Babanango: 3,069
 * Lower Umfolozi (main town Empangeni): 56,082
 * Hlabisa: 18,211
 * Ubombo (main town Jozini): 2,929

title: Natal (province)


text:
David Copperfield (disambiguation)

David Copperfield is a novel by Charles Dickens.

David Copperfield may also refer to:
 * David Copperfield (character), the title character of the novel
 * David Copperfield (illusionist) (born 1956), American illusionist and stage magician
 * David Copperfield (comedian) (born 1947), British comedian and musician
 * PC David Copperfield, British police officer and author

Film

 * David Copperfield (1911 film), a film by Theodore Marston
 * David Copperfield (1913 film), a film by Thomas Bentley
 * David Copperfield (1922 film), a film by A. W. Sandberg
 * David Copperfield (1935 film), a film by George Cukor
 * David Copperfield (1956 TV serial), a TV serial starring Robert Hardy
 * David Copperfield (1966 TV serial), a TV serial starring Ian McKellen
 * David Copperfield (1969 film), a film by Delbert Mann
 * David Copperfield (1974 TV serial), a BBC TV serial that has aired on PBS
 * David Copperfield (1986 TV serial), a BBC TV serial with Simon Callow
 * David Copperfield (1993 film), an animated made-for-television film
 * David Copperfield (1999 film), a TV film by Simon Curtis
 * David Copperfield (2000 film), a 2000 made-for-television film by Peter Medak
 * The Personal History of David Copperfield, a 2019 film chronicling the life of the novel's character

title: David Copperfield (disambiguation)