Salleq Island (old spelling: ''Sagdleq'') is an uninhabited island in the

Avannaata Avannaata (, da, Det Nordlige, lit=The Northern) is a municipality of Greenland created on 1 January 2018 from the bulk of the former Qaasuitsup municipality. It encompasses an area of 522,700 km2 and has 10,726 inhabitants. Geography In ...

municipality in northwestern

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 ...

. It is located in the north-central part of the

Uummannaq Fjord Uummannaq Fjord is a large fjord system in the northern part of western Greenland, the largest after Kangertittivaq fjord in eastern Greenland. It has a roughly south-east to west-north-west orientation, emptying into the Baffin Bay in the nort ...

.Nuussuaq, Saga Map, Tage Schjøtt, 1992 The walls of the island feature characteristic multicolor bands of

gneiss Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures an ...

and

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

layers.

Air Greenland Air Greenland A/S (formerly named Grønlandsfly), also known as Greenlandair, is the flag carrier airline of Greenland, owned by the Greenlandic Government. It operates a fleet of 32 aircraft, including 1 airliner used for transatlantic and cha ...

helicopters approach

Ukkusissat Heliport Ukkusissat Heliport is a heliport in Ukkusissat, a village in the Uummannaq Fjord system in the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland. The heliport is considered a ''helistop'', and is served by Air Greenland as part of a government co ...

on the way from

Uummannaq Heliport Uummannaq Heliport is a heliport in Uummannaq, a town located on Uummannaq Island in Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland. There are no facilities in the heliport. Airlines and destinations Air Greenland operates government contr ...

alongside the southern and western wall of the large

Appat Island Appat Island (old spelling: ''Agpat'') is an uninhabitedNo ...

, to then pass above the narrow Appat Ikerat strait separating it from Salleq Island.

Geography

Salleq Island is separated from

Uummannaq Uummannaq is a town in the Avannaata municipality, in central-western Greenland. With 1,407 inhabitants in 2020, it is the eighth-largest town in Greenland, and is home to the country's most northerly ferry terminal. Founded in 1763 as Omenak, ...

island and

Salliaruseq Island Salliaruseq Island (old spelling: ''Sagdliaruseq'', da, Storøen, translated: The-big-island) is an uninhabited

in the south by the central arm of the Uummannaq Fjord; from the Appat Island in the east by the Appat Ikerat strait; from the small archipelago of low-lying

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 ...

of Qeqertat to the north by the Salliup Qeqertallo Ikerat strait. The island is very mountainous, consisting of an isolated and flooded mountain peak, with precipitous walls falling from the summit () in all directions.

Bird colony

Salleq is a breeding ground for

fulmar The fulmars are tubenosed seabirds of the family Procellariidae. The family consists of two extant species and two extinct fossil species from the Miocene. Fulmars superficially resemble gulls, but are readily distinguished by their flight on ...

s and other seabirds. The island is also home to the largest colony of

black guillemot The black guillemot or tystie (''Cepphus grylle'') is a medium-sized seabird of the Alcidae family, native throughout northern Atlantic coasts and eastern North American coasts. It is resident in much of its range, but large populations from the ...

s in the Uummannaq Fjord region, with the population reaching 100.000 in 1949.''Seabird colonies in Western Greenland''
�� David Boertmann, Anders Mosbech, Knud Falk, Kaj Kampp; Ministry of Environment and Energy, National Environmental Research Institute, September 1996 The island is inaccessible from all sides, and has been a designated nature reserve, with access to the shores forbidden during the summer season: from the beginning of June to the end of August.

References

{{reflist

External links

Uninhabited islands of Greenland Uummannaq Fjord