Qinnguata Kuussua 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 ...

in a

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 a large meltwater outflow from Russell Glacier flowing from 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 ...

. It is the main river in the

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 ...

area. For most of its run, the river is very wide, up to in the upper reaches. The climate is polar continental, with the area receiving very little rainfall.

Geography

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 southern base of the Russell Glacier () form the Qinnguata Kuussua river. The valley is long,International Polar Year
/ref> oriented east-south-east to west-north-west. From the north it is bounded by an exposed, barren, and flattened

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. From the south, the river valley is delimited by a sequence of

tundra In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless moun ...

ranges, culminating in Tasersuatsiaap Kinginnera at , and petering out near Kangerlussuaq in the form of a low, wide ridge of Qaarsorsuaq. The lower part of the valley narrows down in the gorge between Akuliarusiarsuk ridge in the north, and Qaarsorsuaq ridge in the south, which separates the valley from lake

Tasersuatsiaq Tasersuatsiaq (old spelling: ''Taserssuatsiaq'') is a lake in central-western Greenland, in the Qeqqata municipality. It is located southeast of Kangerlussuaq, with a depth of , covering an area of 750ha. During the operating years of the America ...

and the Ammalortup Nunaa highland beyond.

Tributaries

Its main tributary is the

Akuliarusiarsuup Kuua Akuliarusiarsuup Kuua ( da, Sandflugtdalen) is a river and valley of the same name in the Qeqqata municipality in central-western Greenland. Its source is the meltwater outflow from Russell Glacier, an outflow of the Greenland ice sheet. The riv ...

river − another, more northerly outflow from Russell Glacier. During the operating years of the American Bluie West Eight base at Kangerlussuaq, the lower part of the river flow past the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); o ...

was referred to as Watson River. The confluence at forms a small sandur basin with 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 A colloid is a mixture in which one substance consisting of microscopically dispersed insoluble particles is suspended throughout another substance. Some definitions specify that the particles must be dispersed in a ...

Estuary

Quinnguata-kuussua-kangerlussuaq-greenland

The

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

of the river is very narrow, forcing its way through a rock barrier at high speed, discharging silt, which subsequently forms quicksand islet patches at the end of the

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 ri ...

Floods

The combined

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...

of the Qinnguata Kuussua and Akuliarusiarsuup Kuua rivers, including the basin under the ice sheet, is . The river is prone to

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

ing in the summer, sometimes significantly. On 31 August 2007 one of the temporary meltwater outflow lakes near Russell Glacier broke the ice barrier, emptying into the upper basin of the river, with the latter flooding the valley.School of Geography, University of Leeds
/ref>

References

{{reflist Kangerlussuaq Rivers of Greenland Valleys of Greenland