|
Pituffik
Pituffik is a former settlement in northern Greenland, located at the eastern end of Bylot Sound by a tombolo known as ''Uummannaq'', near the current site of the American Thule Air Base. The former inhabitants were relocated to the present-day town of Qaanaaq. The relocation and the fallout from the 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash in the vicinity are a contentious issue in Greenland's relations with Denmark and the United States. Exploration Pituffik was a hunting village of the Greenlandic Inuit. The Qaanaaq region of northern Greenland in which it is located was inhabited for several thousand years, first settled 4,500 years ago by the Paleo-Eskimo peoples migrating from the Canadian Arctic. The area was explored by Commander James Saunders (naval commander), James Saunders of the Royal Navy while wintering on HMS North Star (1824), HMS ''North Star'' in 1849-50 after being trapped by the ice in the sound. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qaanaaq
Qaanaaq (), formerly known as Thule or New Thule, is the main town in the northern part of the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland. It is one of the northernmost cities and towns, northernmost towns in the world. The inhabitants of Qaanaaq speak the local Inuktun language and many also speak Greenlandic language, Kalaallisut and Danish language, Danish. The town has a population of 646 as of 2020. Geography Qaanaaq is located in the northern entrance of the Inglefield Fjord. The village of Qeqertat is located in the Harvard Islands, near the head of the fjord. History The Qaanaaq area in northern Greenland was first settled around 2000 BC by the Paleo-Eskimo migrating from the Canadian Arctic. In 1818, Sir John Ross (Royal Navy officer), John Ross's expedition made first contact with nomadic Inuktun (Polar Eskimos) in the area. James Saunders (naval commander), James Saunders's expedition aboard HMS North Star (1824), HMS ''North Star'' was marooned in North St ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thule Air Base
Thule Air Base (pronounced or , kl, Qaanaaq Mitarfik, da, Thule Lufthavn), or Thule Air Base/Pituffik Airport , is the United States Space Force's northernmost base, and the northernmost installation of the U.S. Armed Forces, located north of the Arctic Circle and from the North Pole on the northwest coast of the island of Greenland. Thule's arctic environment includes icebergs in North Star Bay, two islands ( Saunders Island and Wolstenholme Island), a polar ice sheet, and Wolstenholme Fjord – the only place on Earth where four active glaciers join together. The base is home to a substantial portion of the global network of missile warning sensors of Space Delta 4, and space surveillance and space control sensors of Space Delta 2, providing space awareness and advanced missile detection capabilities to North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the United States Space Force, and joint partners. Thule Air Base is also home to the 821st Air Base Group and is respons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bylot Sound
The Bylot Sound is a sound in the North Star Bay, Avannaata municipality, northwest Greenland. Geography This channel separates Saunders Island and Wolstenholme Island from the Greenland mainland. Its minimum width is , between Wolstenholme Island and Cape Atholl, the mainland point at its southeastern end. There is a tombolo named ''Uummannaq'' on the mainland shore at the eastern end of the sound by the former settlement of Pituffik. History This strait was named after 17th-century English navigator Robert Bylot, who led two expeditions to find the Northwest Passage. In the winter of 1849–1850 under Commander James Saunders of got frozen-in in the sound during an Arctic expedition to search and resupply Captain Sir James Clark Ross' venture, who in turn had sailed in 1848 trying to locate the whereabouts of Sir John Franklin's expedition. While his ship was trapped by ice Commander Saunders named numerous landmarks in that area. In 1968 a B-52 bomber carrying four th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tombolo
A tombolo is a sandy or shingle isthmus. A tombolo, from the Italian ', meaning 'pillow' or 'cushion', and sometimes translated incorrectly as ''ayre'' (an ayre is a shingle beach of any kind), is a deposition landform by which an island becomes attached to the mainland by a narrow piece of land such as a spit or bar. Once attached, the island is then known as a tied island. Several islands tied together by bars which rise above the water level are called a tombolo cluster. Two or more tombolos may form an enclosure (called a lagoon) that can eventually fill with sediment. Formation The shoreline moves toward the island (or detached breakwater) due to accretion of sand in the lee of the island, where wave energy and longshore drift are reduced and therefore deposition of sand occurs. Wave diffraction and refraction True tombolos are formed by wave refraction and diffraction. As waves near an island, they are slowed by the shallow water surrounding it. These waves th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Savissivik
Savissivik (West Greenlandic; old spelling: ''Savigsivik'') or Havighivik (Inuktun) is a settlement in the Avannaata municipality in northern Greenland. Located on Meteorite Island, off the northern shores of Melville Bay, the settlement had 55 inhabitants in 2020. History In the Greenlandic language, the name ''Savissivik'' means "Place of Meteoric Iron" or "Knives", alluding to the numerous meteorite fragments that have been found in the area dating to about 10,000 years ago. The Cape York meteorite is estimated to have weighed 100 tonnes before it exploded. The iron from the meteorite is believed to have attracted migrating Inuit from Arctic Canada. Transport Air Greenland operates settlement flights to Qaanaaq Airport via Thule Air Base Thule Air Base (pronounced or , kl, Qaanaaq Mitarfik, da, Thule Lufthavn), or Thule Air Base/Pituffik Airport , is the United States Space Force's northernmost base, and the northernmost installation of the U.S. Armed Forces, locat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 charter flights, 8 fixed-wing aircraft primarily serving the domestic network, and 18 helicopters feeding passengers from the smaller communities into the domestic airport network. Flights to heliports in the remote settlements are operated on contract with the government of Greenland. Besides running scheduled services and government-contracted flights to most villages in the country, the airline also supports remote research stations, provides charter services for tourists and Greenland's energy and mineral-resource industries and permits medivac during emergencies. Air Greenland has seven subsidiaries, an airline, hotels, tour operators, and a travel agency specialised in Greenlandic tourism. History Founded in 1960 as ''Grønlandsfly'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1968 Thule Air Base B-52 Crash
On 21 January 1968, an aircraft accident, sometimes known as the Thule affair or Thule accident (; da, Thuleulykken), involving a United States Air Force (USAF) B-52 bomber occurred near Thule Air Base in the Danish territory of Greenland. The aircraft was carrying four B28FI thermonuclear bombs on a Cold War " Chrome Dome" alert mission over Baffin Bay when a cabin fire forced the crew to abandon the aircraft before they could carry out an emergency landing at Thule Air Base. Six crew members ejected safely, but one who did not have an ejection seat was killed while trying to bail out. The bomber crashed onto sea ice in North Star Bay, Greenland, causing the conventional explosives aboard to detonate and the nuclear payload to rupture and disperse, resulting in radioactive contamination of the area. The United States and Denmark launched an intensive clean-up and recovery operation, but the secondary stage of one of the nuclear weapons could not be accounted for after the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Administrative Divisions Of Greenland
Greenland is divided into five municipalities Avannaata, Kujalleq, Qeqertalik, Qeqqata, and SermersooqStatistics Greenland''Greenland in Figures, 2014''/ref> as well as the large Northeast Greenland National Park which is unincorporated. The Thule Air Base is administered by the United States Air Force and operates as an unincorporated enclave surrounded by territory of Avannaata. Municipalities History Greenland was originally divided between the two colonies of North Greenland with its capital at Qeqertarsuaq (formerly Godhavn) and South Greenland with its capital at Nuuk (formerly Godthaab). These were directed by inspectors until 1924, when the officials were promoted to governors. The colonies were united in 1940 and the administration centralized at Godthaab. In 1953 a new Danish constitution promoted Greenland to full membership in the Danish state with all of its inhabitants given Danish citizenship. Divisions and national park For statistical and some re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radioactive Decay
Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is considered radioactive. Three of the most common types of decay are alpha decay ( ), beta decay ( ), and gamma decay ( ), all of which involve emitting one or more particles. The weak force is the mechanism that is responsible for beta decay, while the other two are governed by the electromagnetism and nuclear force. A fourth type of common decay is electron capture, in which an unstable nucleus captures an inner electron from one of the electron shells. The loss of that electron from the shell results in a cascade of electrons dropping down to that lower shell resulting in emission of discrete X-rays from the transitions. A common example is iodine-125 commonly used in medical settings. Radioactive decay is a stochastic (i.e. random) proce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plutonium
Plutonium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation states. It reacts with carbon, halogens, nitrogen, silicon, and hydrogen. When exposed to moist air, it forms oxides and hydrides that can expand the sample up to 70% in volume, which in turn flake off as a powder that is pyrophoric. It is radioactive and can accumulate in bones, which makes the handling of plutonium dangerous. Plutonium was first synthetically produced and isolated in late 1940 and early 1941, by a deuteron bombardment of uranium-238 in the cyclotron at the University of California, Berkeley. First, neptunium-238 ( half-life 2.1 days) was synthesized, which subsequently beta-decayed to form the new element with atomic number 94 and atomic weight 238 (half-life 88 years). Since ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. History Random House was founded in 1927 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, two years after they acquired the Modern Library imprint from publisher Horace Liveright, which reprints classic works of literature. Cerf is quoted as saying, "We just said we were going to publish a few books on the side at random," which suggested the name Random House. In 1934 they published the first authorized edition of James Joyce's novel ''Ulysses'' in the Anglophone world. ''Ulysses'' transformed Random House into a formidable publisher over the next two decades. In 1936, it absorbed the firm of Smith and Haas—Robert Haas became the third partner until retiring and selling his share back to Cerf and Klopfer in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet is a travel guide book publisher. Founded in Australia in 1973, the company has printed over 150 million books. History Early years Lonely Planet was founded by married couple Maureen and Tony Wheeler. In 1972, they embarked on an overland trip through Europe and Asia to Australia, following the route of the Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition. The company name originates from the misheard "lovely planet" in a song written by Matthew Moore. Lonely Planet's first book, ''Across Asia on the Cheap'', had 94 pages; it was written by the couple in their home. The original 1973 print run consisted of stapled booklets with pale blue cardboard covers. Tony returned to Asia to write ''Across Asia on the Cheap: A Complete Guide to Making the Overland Trip'', published in 1975. Expansion The Lonely Planet guide book series initially expanded to cover other countries in Asia, with the India guide book in 1981, and expanded to rest of the world later on. G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
