Kulusuk Island ( kl, Kulusup qeqertaa) is an island 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 on the southeastern shore of

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 ...

.Tasiilaq, Saga Map, Tage Schjøtt, 1992 It is an outlying island in the Ammassalik archipelago of islands on the coast of the

North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe and ...

. The island is home to

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 ...

, the fourth-largest settlement on the entire eastern coast of Greenland.Statistics Greenland
The island has an area of 41.98 km², and measures from north to south and from west to east. The

Kulusuk Airport Kulusuk Airport ( kl, Mittarfik Kulusuk) is an airport in Kulusuk, a settlement on an island of the same name off the shore of the North Atlantic in the Sermersooq municipality in southeastern Greenland. History The airstrip was built by US d ...

on the island is one of the two airports on the entire eastern Greenland coast.

History

Among the archaeological ruins on Kulusuk the ancient settlement of Ikaasap Ittiva (Ikâsap Igtiva) is located near the shore at the northern end of the island. This site belongs to the oldest phase of the

Saqqaq culture The Saqqaq culture (named after the Saqqaq settlement, the site of many archaeological finds) was a Paleo-Eskimo culture in southern Greenland. Up to this day, no other people seem to have lived in Greenland continually for as long as the Saqqaq. ...

, around 2000 BCE.

Geography

The island is hilly throughout, with several distinct mountains dominating the eastern and southern coast. The southernmost point is the Naujaangivit cape ( da, Kap Dan − a name often extended to the settlement or the island) under the Isikajia mountain (). To the northeast the island is separated from the

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 ...

by 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 ...

. In the north, 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 separates it from the small, uninhabited Akinaaq island, ultimately linking it to the

Ammassalik Fjord Ammassalik Fjord (old spelling: ''Angmagssalik Fjord'') is a long fjord in the Sermersooq municipality in southeastern Greenland. Geography The head of the fjord at is formed by the confluence of two narrow, tributary fjords: ''Qingertivaq ...

in the northwest. To the south and east the island shores are washed by the icy waters of the

, through which flows the

East Greenland Current The East Greenland Current (EGC) is a cold, low- salinity current that extends from Fram Strait (~80N) to Cape Farewell (~60N). The current is located off the eastern coast of Greenland along the Greenland continental margin. The current cuts th ...

Promontories

Coast

The coast of most of the island is mostly undeveloped, with the mountain walls and slopes falling directly into the ocean. In the west there are several small peninsulas and bays. The largest of the latter is ''Tiivtingaleq'' bay to the southwest of the settlement, host to a small harbour used both in all seasons as a starting point for hunting trips. A group of tiny

skerries A skerry is a small rocky island, usually defined to be too small for habitation. Skerry, skerries, or The Skerries may also refer to: Geography Northern Ireland * Skerries, County Armagh, a townland in County Armagh * Skerry, County Antrim, a ...

surrounds the coastline in the west, as well as in the north in the vicinity of the village. From north to south, the western skerries are: ''Sitte'', ''Puullortuluk'', ''Ittitalik'', ''Ittive'', and ''Saattit''.

Mountains

The island is hilly, and unlike its immediate neighbours, not glaciated, albeit covered with ice for more than half of the year. The highest point on the island is the summit of

Qalorujoorneq Qalorngoorneq is a small mountain range in the eastern part of Kulusuk Island in Sermersooq Municipality, southeastern Greenland. At topping a wide mountain massif in the southeast, directly above the

. Qalorujoorneq has three ridges. Its southeastern ridge extends to the southeastern promontory on the island, with two distinct peaks: ''Saajat'' at and ''Kangeq'' at .

Lakes

There is one larger lake on the island, ''Qalorujoornep Tasia'', located in a post-glacial

cirque A (; from the Latin word ') is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from Scottish Gaelic , meaning a pot or cauldron) and (; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform ...

in the heart of the island directly west of the western wall of Qalorujoorneq. Its northern shore is situated just shy of the shallow saddle in the northwestern ridge of the mountain, directly above the airport. During the brief summer a stream flows to the west, to then turn north through the depression in the center of the island, to join the second-largest lake on the island, serving as a water reservoir for the settlement. The reservoir empties into a smaller pond on the edge of the village just south of the coastal scarp. The outflow from the reservoir leads to the west, through a series of smaller interior lakes, draining into Tiivtingaleq bay. All lakes and streams are frozen during winter.

References

{{Authority control Islands of Greenland