Ammassalik Fjord (old spelling: ''Angmagssalik Fjord'') is a long

fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Ice ...

in the

Sermersooq Sermersooq (, da, sted med meget is, lit=place of much ice) is a municipality in Greenland, formed on 1 January 2009 from five earlier, smaller municipalities. Its administrative seat is the city of Nuuk (formerly called Godthåb), the capital ...

municipality in southeastern

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 ...

Geography

The head of the fjord at is formed by the confluence of two narrow, tributary fjords: ''Qingertivaq Fjord'' and ''Tasiilaq Fjord'' (one of two fjords of that name). The fjord has a north-to-south orientation in its northern part, to then turn midway to the south-west-south at approximately . While the shores of the northern part separate peninsulas of the mainland of Greenland, the southern, progressively wider half of the fjord separates the large Ammassalik Island in the west from islands of the eponymous Ammassalik Archipelago in the east and southeast, including the largest,

Apusiaajik Island Apusiaajik Island (old spelling: ''Apusiâjik'') is an uninhabited island in the Sermersooq municipality on the southeastern shore of Greenland.Tasiilaq, Saga Map, Tage Schjøtt, 1992 It is an outlying island in the Ammassalik archipelago of islan ...

.''Tasiilaq'', Saga Map, Tage Schjøtt, 1992 The fjord is joined by narrow waterways with other waterbodies in the region: the Ikaasartivaq Strait separating Ammassalik Island from the mainland connects the fjord to the wider

Sermilik Fjord Sermilik ( da, Egede og Rothes Fjord) is a fjord in eastern Greenland. It is part of the Sermersooq municipality. The settlement of Tasiilaq is located about 15 km to the east of the mouth of the fjord. Geography This fjord, whose Gre ...

in the west, while the

Torsuut Tunoq Torsuut Tunoq (old spelling: ''Torssuut Tunoq'') is a sound on the southeastern coast of Greenland. It is an inner waterway of the North Atlantic. Geography The sound separates Kulusuk Island in the south from Apusiaajik Island in the northeast, ...

sound and the

Ikaasaartik Strait Ikaasaartik Strait (old spelling: ''Ikâsârtik'') is a strait in the Sermersooq municipality, on the southeastern coast of Greenland. Geography The strait separates Kulusuk Island in the southwest from Apusiaajik Island in the northeast. Th ...

connect the fjord to the open North Atlantic. Tasiilaq - Greenland summer 2009

Settlement

History

Gustav Holm writes that in the winter of 1884–5, there were 225 Inuit living on the fjord in seven villages: *''Tasiusarsik kangigdlek'' (35), near the western mouth of the fjord *''Kangarsik'' (34) and ''Norsit'' (25), on Kulusuk Island *'' Umivik'' (19) and ''Kumarmiut'' (28), on

*''Ingmikertok'' (37), on a small island near Kumarmiut *''Norajik'' (47), on the island at the end of the wider, outer part of the fjord

Present day

There are three settlements in the vicinity of the fjord. The only village on the mainland is

Kuummiit Kuummiit ( Kalaallisut: ''Kuummiut'') is a settlement in the Sermersooq municipality in southeastern Greenland. Founded in 1915, it had 248 inhabitants in 2020. Geography The settlement is located on the eastern shore of the Ammassalik Fjord, a ...

, located on the central fjord's eastern coast, perched on the tip of a partially glaciated peninsula. The main settlement of the Ammassalik archipelago is the town of

Tasiilaq Tasiilaq, formerly Ammassalik and Angmagssalik, is a town in the Sermersooq municipality in southeastern Greenland. With 1,985 inhabitants as of 2020, it is the most populous community on the eastern coast, and the seventh-largest town in Green ...

, located on the island of

Ammassalik Ammassalik Island ( da, Ammassalik Ø) is an island in the Sermersooq municipality in southeastern Greenland, with an area of .

, near the mouth of the tributary

Tasiilaq Fjord Tasiilaq, formerly Ammassalik and Angmagssalik, is a town in the Sermersooq municipality in southeastern Greenland. With 1,985 inhabitants as of 2020, it is the most populous community on the eastern coast, and the seventh-largest town in Green ...

( da, Kong Oscars Havn), just south of the mouth of Ammassalik Fjord. Further to the southeast,

Kulusuk Kulusuk (old spelling: ''Qulusuk''Eastgreenland.com.Kulusuk".), formerly Kap Dan, is a settlement in the Sermersooq municipality in southeastern Greenland, located on an island of the same name. The settlement population of 241 includes many Dane ...

village occupies the northern shore of

Kulusuk Island Kulusuk Island ( kl, Kulusup qeqertaa) is an island in the Sermersooq municipality on the southeastern shore of Greenland.Tasiilaq, Saga Map, Tage Schjøtt, 1992 It is an outlying island in the Ammassalik archipelago of islands on the coast of the ...

References

{{reflist Fjords of Greenland