Nioghalvfjerdsbrae (), sometimes referred to as " 79 N Glacier", is a large glacier located in King Frederick VIII Land, northeastern Greenland. It drains an area of 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 ...

with a

flux Flux describes any effect that appears to pass or travel (whether it actually moves or not) through a surface or substance. Flux is a concept in applied mathematics and vector calculus which has many applications to physics. For transport ph ...

(quantity of ice moved from the land to the sea) of per year, as measured for 1996. The glacier has two calving fronts where the glacier meets the ocean, separated by

Hovgaard Island Hovgaard Island is an island long, lying off the northwest coast of Kyiv Peninsula, southwest of Booth Island in the Wilhelm Archipelago, Antarctica. It was discovered and named "Krogmann-Insel" (Krogmann Island) by the German 1873–74 expe ...

. In July 2020, the northern offshoot, the

Spalte Glacier The Spalte Glacier was a large floating glacier located in Crown Prince Christian Land, northeastern Greenland. The glacier broke up and completely disintegrated in July 2020. Geography The glacier was a northern offshoot of the Nioghalvfjerdsb ...

broke away from Nioghalvfjerdsbrae and completely disintegrated.

History

This glacier was named by the ill-fated

Denmark expedition The Denmark expedition ( da, Danmark-ekspeditionen), also known as the Denmark Expedition to Greenland's Northeast Coast, and as the Danmark Expedition after the ship, was an expedition to the northeast of Greenland in 1906–1908. Despite being ...

1906-1908 because it lies at a latitude of 79°. The name had been meant to be temporary, but it acquired a new significance when it was deemed to be the place where expedition leader

Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen (15 January 1872 – 25 November 1907) was a Danish author, ethnologist, and explorer, from Ringkøbing. He was most notably an explorer of Greenland. Literary expedition With Count Harald Moltke and Knud Rasmussen Mylius-E ...

, as well as cartographer Niels Peter Høeg Hagen, had died according to

Jørgen Brønlund Jørgen Brønlund (14 December 1877 – November 1907), was a Kalaallit, Greenlandic polar explorer, educator, and Catechism, catechist. He participated in two Danish expeditions to Greenland in the early 20th century. Early years Brønlund, ...

's diary.Place names, NE Greenland
/ref> Since 1990 Greenland's longest persistent supraglacial stream runs on the glacier, 73 km long in 2011, 71 km in 2017. The width of the stream remains relatively constant over most of the length ranging from 20 to 35 m. In August 1997 the southern calving front retreated by 5 km with no significant upstream thinning.Sustained mass loss of the northeast Greenland ice sheet triggered by regional warming
/ref>

Geography

The terminus of the glacier is in the Nioghalvfjerd Fjord, south of the Dijmphna Sound. The fjord and the glacier form the southern limit of

Crown Prince Christian Land Crown Prince Christian Land ( da, Kronprins Christian Land) is a large peninsula in northern Greenland. It is a part of King Frederick VIII Land and administratively it belongs to the Northeast Greenland National Park. It was named after Crown P ...

. The glacier has had an 80 km long and 20 km wide floating tongue, widening toward its terminus north of Lambert Land.

References

Glaciers of Greenland {{arctic-stub

History

Geography

See also

References