Smith Sound in the context of Ellesmere Island

The Nares Strait (Danish: Nares Strædet; French: Détroit de Nares) is a waterway between Ellesmere Island and Greenland that connects the northern part of Baffin Bay in the Atlantic Ocean with the Lincoln Sea in the Arctic Ocean. From south to north, the strait includes Smith Sound, Kane Basin, Kennedy Channel, Hall Basin and Robeson Channel. Nares Strait has a nearly permanent current from the north, powered by the Beaufort Gyre, making it harder to traverse for ships coming from the south.

In 1964, its name was agreed by the Danish (Stednavneudvalget, now Stednavnenævnet) and Canadian governments. The name derives from the British naval officer George Strong Nares.

Baffin Bay (Inuktitut: Saknirutiak Imanga; Greenlandic: Avannaata Imaa; French: Baie de Baffin; Danish: Baffinsbugten), located between Baffin Island and the west coast of Greenland, is defined by the International Hydrographic Organization as a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is sometimes considered a sea of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is connected to the Atlantic via the Davis Strait and the Labrador Sea. The narrower Nares Strait connects Baffin Bay with the Arctic Ocean. The bay is not navigable most of the year because of the ice cover and high density of floating ice and icebergs in the open areas. However, a polynya of about 80,000 km (31,000 sq mi), known as the North Water, opens in summer on the north near Smith Sound. Most of the aquatic life of the bay is concentrated near that region.

Kane Basin (Danish: Kane Bassin; French: Bassin (de) Kane) is an Arctic waterway lying between Greenland and Ellesmere Island, Canada's northernmost. It links Smith Sound to Kennedy Channel and forms part of Nares Strait. It is approximately 180 km (110 mi) in length and 130 km (81 mi) at its widest.

It is named after the American explorer Elisha Kent Kane, whose expedition in search of Franklin's lost expedition crossed it in 1854. Kane himself had named it "Peabody Bay," in honor of philanthropist George Peabody, the major funder of Kane's expedition. Currently Peabody Bay is a bay at the eastern side of the basin, off the southwestern end of the Humboldt Glacier in northern Greenland.