Akuliarusiarsuup Kuua ( da, Sandflugtdalen) is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

and

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...

of the same name in the

Qeqqata Qeqqata (, da, Centrum, lit=Centre) is a municipality in western Greenland, operational from 1 January 2009. The municipality was named after its location in the central-western part of the country. Its population is 9,378 as of January 2020. Th ...

municipality in central-western

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

. Its source is the meltwater outflow from Russell Glacier, an outflow of the

Greenland ice sheet The Greenland ice sheet ( da, Grønlands indlandsis, kl, Sermersuaq) is a vast body of ice covering , roughly near 80% of the surface of Greenland. It is sometimes referred to as an ice cap, or under the term ''inland ice'', or its Danish equiva ...

. The river is a tributary of

Qinnguata Kuussua Qinnguata Kuussua is a river in a valley of the same name in the Qeqqata municipality in central-western Greenland. Its source is a large meltwater outflow from Russell Glacier flowing from the Greenland Ice Sheet. It is the main river in the ...

, the main river in the Kangerlussuaq area. For most of its run, the river flows very slowly through the sandur basin of the valley,Sedimentary Architecture of Glacio-fluvial Fjord Valley Fill - de Winter, Ilja L; Overeem, Irina; Storms, Joep E.A., 2008 Arctic Workshop abstract
/ref> forming

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex bank ...

s amongst large fields of glacial

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...

quicksand Quicksand is a colloid consisting of fine granular material (such as sand, silt or clay) and water. It forms in saturated loose sand when the sand is suddenly agitated. When water in the sand cannot escape, it creates a liquefied soil that los ...

. The climate is polar continental, with the area receiving very little rainfall.

Geography

Quicksands-dunes-akuliarusiarsuup-kuua-greenland

Aajuitsup-tasia-akuliarusiarsuup-kuua-sermersuaq-greenland

Several

meltwater Meltwater is water released by the melting of snow or ice, including glacial ice, tabular icebergs and ice shelves over oceans. Meltwater is often found in the ablation zone of glaciers, where the rate of snow cover is reducing. Meltwater can be ...

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 The Kangaamiut dike swarm (old spelling: ''Kangâmiut'') is a 2.04 billion year old dike swarm located in the Qeqqata region of western Greenland. The dikes cut Archean orthogneisses and are exposed along approximately of the coast and a similar ...

− separating it from large glacial lakes of Aajuitsup Tasia and

Sanningasoq Sanningasoq (old spelling: ''Sáningassoq'') is a large oligotrophic twin lake ridge A ridge or a mountain ridge is a geographical feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for an extended distance. The sides of the ridge slope away from the narrow top on either side. The line ...

of Akuliarusiarsuk. The lower part of the valley narrows down in the gorge between Akuliarusiarsuk ridge in the south and lone-standing Sugar Loaf mountain in the north, forming waterfalls. In the immediate vicinity of

Kangerlussuaq 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 commer ...

at approximately the river empties into a larger river, Qinnguata Kuussua, again amongst wide fields of quicksands. The narrow estuary of the latter at the 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 ...

was referred to as Watson River during American occupation of the Bluie West Eight air base at what is today Kangerlussuaq.

References

{{reflist Kangerlussuaq Rivers of Greenland Valleys of Greenland