Kjerulf Fjord is a
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
King Christian X Land
King Christian X Land ( da, Kong Christian X Land) is an area of northeastern Greenland.
History
This area was named after King Christian X of Denmark and Iceland (1870 – 1947), who rose to the throne in 1912. At the time of the Three-year E ...
, eastern
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 ...
.
The Kjerulf Fjord is part of the
Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord
Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord ( da, Kejser Franz Josef Fjord; kl, Kangerluk Kejser Franz Joseph) is a major fjord system in the NE Greenland National Park area, East Greenland.
Geography
The Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord has its mouth in the Foster Ba ...
system.
[''Prostar Sailing Directions 2005 Greenland and Iceland Enroute'', p. 120] Administratively it lies in the area of the
Northeast Greenland National Park
Northeast Greenland National Park ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaanni nuna eqqissisimatitaq, da, Grønlands Nationalpark) is the world's largest national park and the 10th List of largest protected areas in the world, largest protected area (the only large ...
.
History
There are
Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...
ruins at a place named Paradisdal. Excavations were conducted by
James Wordie
Sir James Mann Wordie CBE FRS FRSGS LLD (26 April 1889 – 16 January 1962) was a Scottish polar explorer and geologist. Friends knew him as Jock Wordie.
He was President of the Royal Geographical Society from 1951 to 1954. Early life and ed ...
at the time of the 1929
Cambridge Expedition to East Greenland
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
. There are also scattered remains of the now extinct East Greenland
reindeer
Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...
in the form of antlers and bones.
The fjord was first mapped by
Julius Payer
Julius Johannes Ludovicus Ritter von Payer (2 September 1841, – 29 August 1915), ennobled Ritter von Payer in 1876, was an officer of the Austro-Hungarian Army, mountaineer, arctic explorer, cartographer, painter, and professor at the Ther ...
during the 1869–1870
Second German North Polar Expedition
The German North Polar Expeditions were a short series of mid-19th century German expeditions to the Arctic. The aim was to explore the North Pole region and to brand the newly united, Prussian-led German Empire as a great power. In 1866, German ge ...
led by
Carl Koldewey
Carl Christian Koldewey (26 October 1837 – 17 May 1908) was a German Arctic explorer. He led both German North Polar Expeditions.
Life and career
Koldewey was the son of merchant Johann Christian Koldewey and his wife Wilhelmine Meyer. Koldewey ...
(1837–1908). It was named after Norwegian geologist
Theodor Kjerulf
Theodor Kjerulf (30 March 182525 October 1888) was a Norwegian geologist and professor at the University of Oslo. He also served as director of the Norwegian Geological Survey.
Biography
He was born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. He was the ...
(1825–88), founder of the Geological Survey of Norway in 1858. There were errors in Payer's map, which were later corrected by
Alfred Gabriel Nathorst
Alfred Gabriel Nathorst (7 November 1850 – 20 January 1921) was a Swedish Arctic explorer, geologist, and palaeobotanist.
Life
He was born in Väderbrunn in Sweden.
Nathorst's interest in geology was awoken by Charles Lyell’s ‘’Prin ...
(1850–1921).
Josef Hammar was the first to reach the head of the fjord by canoe in 1899.
Louise Boyd noted the large amount of massive stranded icebergs in the fjord during an exploration in 1931.
Geography
This fjord is the innermost tributary of Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord. Its mouth opens to the north on the southern shore of the main fjord, only about east of the terminus of the
Nordenskiöld Glacier ''(Akuliarutsip Sermerssua)'' at its head. The fjord runs in a roughly north/south direction for over .
[''Prostar Sailing Directions 2005 Greenland and Iceland Enroute'', pp. 120-121] The fjord separates
Goodenoughland in the west from
Suess Land
Suess Land is a peninsula in King Christian X Land, East Greenland. Administratively it is part of the Northeast Greenland National Park.
History
This peninsula was named by A.G. Nathorst after Austrian geologist Eduard Suess (1831–1914) at t ...
in the east.
Kjerulf Fjord is about wide in the mouth area, narrowing to an average of less than in the inner reaches.
Ridderborgen (Knight Mountain), a high peak topped by a rock pinnacle resembling a ruined castle, rises on the west side of the mouth area of the fjord.
[''Sailing Directions for the East Coast of Greenland,'' United States Hydrographic Office. p, 192] The landscape of the inner fjord, with grass-covered slopes and valleys, such as Paradisdal, is more gentle than the shoreline of inner Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord with its forbidding dark cliffs. Kjerulf Fjord has been described as an "iceberg graveyard", for many glaciers originating in the
Isfjord
Isfjord, meaning 'Ice Fjord' in the Danish language, is a fjord in King Christian X Land, eastern Greenland.
The Isfjord is part of the Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord complex''Prostar Sailing Directions 2005 Greenland and Iceland Enroute'', p. 120 in ...
to the north, end up stranded here driven by the wind and currents.
The head is located in the isthmus area of Suess Land, only about north of the head of
Dickson Fjord.
There are mudflats at the head and a few minor glaciers such as the
Passage Glacier flow into the fjord and the
Hisinger Glacier flows to the south and SW of the mudflats.
See also
*
List of fjords of Greenland
This is a list of the most important fjords of Greenland:In Northern Greenland, a large area made up entirely of fjords; therefore Peary Land above not a fjord but a fjord area.In Northeastern Greenland, a large area made up entirely of fjor ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
A Contribution to the Geology of the Country between Petermann Peak and Kjerulf Fjord, East GreenlandGreenland, view of Kjerulf FjordLate Quaternary sedimentation in Kejser Franz Joseph Fjord and the continental margin of East Greenland
Fjords of Greenland