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Kangerlussuaq Peaks
Kangerlussuaq (; ; da, Søndre Strømfjord), is a settlement in western Greenland in the Qeqqata municipality located at the head of the fjord of the same name. It is Greenland's main air transport hub and the site of Greenland's largest commercial airport. The airport dates from American settlement during and after World War II, when the site was known as Bluie West-8 and then Sondrestrom Air Base. The Kangerlussuaq area is also home to Greenland's most diverse terrestrial fauna, including muskoxen, caribou, and gyrfalcons. The settlement's economy and population of 508 is almost entirely reliant on the airport and tourist industry. Geography Kangerlussuaq occupies an alluvial flatland on the far end of the 190 km long Kangerlussuaq Fjord, straddling both sides of the Qinnguata Kuussua river estuary. East of Kangerlussuaq there is a confluence of the two major regional rivers, the Qinnguata Kuussua and Akuliarusiarsuup Kuua. The valley of the latter forms lar ...
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Kangerlussuaq Airport
Kangerlussuaq Airport ( kl, Mittarfik Kangerlussuaq, da, Søndre Strømfjord Lufthavn) is an airport in Kangerlussuaq, a settlement in the Qeqqata municipality in central-western Greenland. Alongside Narsarsuaq Airport, it is one of only two civilian airports in Greenland large enough to handle large airliners. It is located away from the coast and hence less prone to fog and wind in comparison with other airports in Greenland. Kangerlussuaq Airport is the international hub for Air Greenland. The Kangerlussuaq area has very few inhabitants (around 500), so few passengers have their origin or destination here; most passengers change planes. History The first airport was built here during the US occupation in 1941 under the name of Bluie West-8, later renamed Sondrestromfjord Air Base and Sondrestrom Air Base. In the mid 1950s, transatlantic civilian flights began using the air base for refueling. In 1956, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) was flying "Polar route" service with thre ...
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Akuliarusiarsuup Kuua
Akuliarusiarsuup Kuua ( da, Sandflugtdalen) is a river and valley of the same name in the Qeqqata municipality in central-western Greenland. Its source is the meltwater outflow from Russell Glacier, an outflow of the Greenland ice sheet. The river is a tributary of Qinnguata Kuussua, the main river in the Kangerlussuaq area. For most of its run, the river flows very slowly through the sandur basin of the valley, forming meanders amongst large fields of glacial silt quicksand. The climate is polar continental, with the area receiving very little rainfall. Geography Several meltwater outflow streams from the base of the Russell Glacier () form the Akuliarusiarsuup Kuua river. The valley is long, oriented east-north-east to west-south-west. From the north it is bounded by a low-lying (300-400m) ridge − part of the Kangaamiut dike swarm − separating it from large glacial lakes of Aajuitsup Tasia and Sanningasoq. On the southern side the boundary is formed by an exposed, ...
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United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II (1941–1945). It was created on 20 June 1941 as successor to the previous United States Army Air Corps and is the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force, today one of the six United States Armed Forces, armed forces of the United States. The AAF was a component of the United States Army, which on 2 March 1942 was divided functionally by executive order into three autonomous forces: the Army Ground Forces, the United States Army Services of Supply (which in 1943 became the Army Service Forces), and the Army Air Forces. Each of these forces had a commanding general who reported directly to the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Army Chief of Staff. The AAF administered all parts of military aviation formerly distributed am ...
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Bernt Balchen
Bernt Balchen (23 October 1899 – 17 October 1973) was a Norwegian pioneer polar aviator, navigator, aircraft mechanical engineer and military leader. A Norwegian native, he later became an American citizen and was a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross. His service in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II made use of his Arctic exploration expertise to help the Allies over Scandinavia and Northern Europe. After the war, Balchen continued to be an influential leader with the U.S. Air Force, as well as a highly regarded private consultant in projects involving the Arctic and aviation. Early years The son of a country doctor, Balchen was born at the farm Myren in Tveit, just outside Kristiansand, Norway. After having finished Norwegian middle school in 1916, he attended a Forestry School from 1917 to 1918. Next he enrolled in the French Foreign Legion, and his unit was assigned to the Verdun front in World War I. In 1918, before seeing action, Balchen was recalle ...
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Bluie West-8
Sondrestrom Air Base, originally Bluie West-8, was a United States Air Force base in central Greenland. The site is located north of the Arctic Circle and from the northeast end of Kangerlussuaq Fjord Kangerlussuaq Fjord (old spelling: ''Kangerdlugssuaq'', da, Søndre Strømfjord) is a long fjord in the Qeqqata municipality in central-western Greenland. The fjord is long and between and wide, flowing from the estuary of Qinnguata Kuussua r ... (formerly known by its Danish language, Danish name ''Søndre Strømfjord''). The base is approximately west-northwest of Ravneklippen and east of Sisimiut. Following World War II, the base was briefly returned to Danish control between 9 October 1950 and 20 July 1951. The 1951 Greenland bases treaty led to the return of Sondrestrom to American control. The base was turned over to the government of Greenland, Greenland government in 1992 and is now the civilian community of Kangerlussuaq and Kangerlussuaq Airport, although the USA ...
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Greenlandic Inuit People
Greenlanders ( kl, Kalaallit / Tunumiit / Inughuit; da, Grønlændere) are people identified with Greenland or the indigenous people, the Greenlandic Inuit (''Grønlansk Inuit''; Kalaallit, Inughuit, and Tunumiit). This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Greenlanders, many of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''Greenlandic''. However, the term can in different contexts be delimited more precisely in different ways: as the inhabitants of Greenland, as nationals of Greenland or more broadly as persons who feel a cultural affiliation in a broad sense to Greenland. More controversial is a more recent use of the word in the sense persons of Greenlandic origin, i.e. persons whose parents were born in Greenland. The indigenous people of Greenland, or the Greenlandic Inuit, have ''indigenous status'' in the Kingdom of Denmark. Nationals of Greenland are citizens of Denmark and are overseas countries and ter ...
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Arctic Circle Trail
The Arctic Circle Trail is a hiking trail in Greenland. The route covers from the interior settlement of Kangerlussuaq to Sisimiut on the coast. Geography and terrain The entirety of the trail is north of the arctic circle, hence the name. While 80% of Greenland is covered in ice sheets, the trail travels from the edge of the ice cap to the western coast of the island. The trail covers parts of traditional hunting grounds now recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Aasivissuit – Nipisat: Inuit Hunting Ground between Ice and Sea, though it was officially established in 1998. Approximately the first of the trail is along a gravel road, with the rest of it on single track hiking trail that is sparsely marked by cairns. The trail does not have any significant mountain passes to cross, reaching a maximum altitude of . It passes by numerous lakes, river crossings, and boggy terrain. During summer the route is largely snow free, but during spring, fall, and winter it re ...
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Arctic Circle
The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the most northerly of the five major circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth. Its southern equivalent is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circle marks the southernmost latitude at which, on the December solstice, the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, the sun will not rise all day, and on the June solstice, the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, the sun will not set. These phenomena are referred to as polar night and midnight sun respectively, and the further north one progresses, the more pronounced these effects become. For example, in the Russian port city of Murmansk, three degrees above the Arctic Circle, the sun does not rise for 40 successive days in midwinter. The position of the Arctic Circle is not fixed and currently runs north of the Equator. Its latitude depends on the Earth's axial tilt, which fluctuates within a margin of more than 2° over a 41,000-year period, o ...
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Tasersuatsiaq
Tasersuatsiaq (old spelling: ''Taserssuatsiaq'') is a lake in central-western Greenland, in the Qeqqata municipality. It is located southeast of Kangerlussuaq, with a depth of , covering an area of 750ha. During the operating years of the American base at Bluie West Eight at Kangerlussuaq the lake was referred to as Lake Ferguson. The lake and the Roklubben Restaurant at its western shore are connected to Kangerlussuaq by a gravel road, one of the very few in Greenland. Tasersuatsiaq is a source of fresh water for Kangerlussuaq. Geography The 2x6km lake is separated from the valleys of Qinnguata Kuussua and Akuliarusiarsuup Kuua, as well as the Kangerlussuaq settlement in the north by a low tundra ridge of Qaarsorsuaq. To the west lies the far end of the Kangerlussuaq Fjord. On the southern and eastern side it is bounded by a vast highland of Ammalortup Nunaa, the original region artificially populated with 27 muskoxen. Flora and fauna The bottom of the lake is covered wit ...
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Tarajornitsut
Tarajornitsut is an uninhabited tundra highland in the Qeqqata municipality in central-western Greenland, within the bounds of Kangaamiut dike swarm. The highland has many lakes, shallow valleys, hills, and wetlands, with plentiful wildlife, such as arctic geese. It is also a major calving ground for reindeer. In the future the area will become a protected nature reserve. The ''Polar Route'' from Sisimiut to Kangerlussuaq ends in Tarajornitsut, on the shore of Kangerlussuaq Fjord. Geography Tarajornitsut is located north of Kangerlussuaq Fjord, behind the dike scarp bounding the fjord from the northwest. The eastern part of the wide highland region of numerous lakes (some of which are saline), wet valley depressions, and mostly barren hills, begins immediately to the north of Kangerlussuaq, and is bounded from the east by the large Sanningasoq lake. The long Tasersuaq lake in the west separates the highland from the Pingu mountain group halfway between Davis Strait and the G ...
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Isunngua
Isunngua (old spelling: ''Isúngua'') is a highland in the Qeqqata municipality in central-western Greenland, located immediately west of the Greenland Ice Sheet edge. In large part it is covered by the tundra, although in the immediate vicinity of the Sermersuaq ice sheet it gradually becomes exposed, barren, and largely devoid of life. The climate is polar continental, with the area receiving very little rainfall. Isunngua is a calving site for reindeer. Geography Isunngua is notable for a gravel road which leads through it towards the edge of the Greenland Ice Sheet, located east of Kangerlussuaq, and due to trivial approach it remains a popular tourist target, although very few hikers make the journey on foot, or explore the neighboring glaciers. The highland is bounded from the north by the Isunnguata Sermia glacier, from the south by Russell Glacier and Aajuitsup Tasia lake, and from the west by Sanningasoq twin lake. Both glaciers flow to the west from the ice sh ...
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