Kangerlussuaq Fjord ( kl, Kangerlussuaq, meaning 'large fjord'; da, Stor Fjord) is a fjord in eastern

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 part of 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 A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

. The fjord was named by the East-Greenland Coast Expedition led by Georg Carl Amdrup in 1900. Currently

drilling Drilling is a cutting process where a drill bit is spun to cut a hole of circular cross-section in solid materials. The drill bit is usually a rotary cutting tool, often multi-point. The bit is pressed against the work-piece and rotated at ra ...

explorations are being carried out for the possible exploitation of

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

palladium Palladium is a chemical element with the symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself na ...

and

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...

in the Kangerlussuaq area.
Project Update and Activities
' (PDF; 1,9 MB), Platina Resources Ltd., 26. Februar 2014 (englisch)

History

The eastern coast of Greenland was inhabited by

Paleo-Eskimo The Paleo-Eskimo (also pre-Thule or pre-Inuit) were the peoples who inhabited the Arctic region from Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Chukotka (e.g., Chertov Ovrag) in present-day Russia across North America to Greenland prior to the arrival of the mode ...

people 4000 years ago and the Kangerlussuaq Fjord was likely visited by hunters. A

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

hand scraper A hand scraper is a single-edged tool used to scrape metal or other materials from a surface. This may be required where a surface needs to be trued, corrected for fit to a mating part, needs to retain oil (usually on a freshly ground surfa ...

found in Cape Irminger —24 km east of Cape Hammer— proves that the region was visited at least 2000 years ago.Christian Glahder: ''Hunting in Kangerlussuaq, East Greenland, 1951–1991. An Assessment of Local Knowledge'' (= ''Meddelelser om Grønland, Man & Society'', Nr. 19, 1995)
p. 12
/ref>

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

lived in the area between the late 13th century and the early 19th century.Skaergaard history
/ref> Remains of Inuit dwellings were found in 1900 when the first Europeans reached this remote fjord during Georg Amdrup's East-Greenland Coast Expedition. However, the first archaeological excavations on the

Skaergaard intrusion The Skaergaard intrusion is a layered igneous intrusion in the Kangerlussuaq area, East Greenland. It comprises various rock types including gabbro, ferro diorite, anorthosite and granophyre. Discovered by Lawrence Wager in 1931 during the Br ...

were carried out by members of the Second East-Greenland Expedition of the Scoresbysund Committee led by

Ejnar Mikkelsen Ejnar Mikkelsen (December 23, 1880 – May 1, 1971) was a Danish polar explorer and author. He is most known for his expeditions to Greenland. Biography Mikkelsen was born in Vester Brønderslev, Jutland. He served in the Georg Carl Amdrup exp ...

in 1932. On the occasion of the Second

International Polar Year The International Polar Years (IPY) are collaborative, international efforts with intensive research focus on the polar regions. Karl Weyprecht, an Austro-Hungarian naval officer, motivated the endeavor in 1875, but died before it first occurred i ...

in 1932 a Norwegian weather and radio station named "Storfjord/LMR"Kystradio - Stasjonshistorie
/ref> began operations at Mud Bay ''(Mudderbugten)'' on the southwest side of Kangerlussuaq Fjord. The station ceased operations in 1933.Norwegian Polar Year and Radio Stations in East Greenland, 1932–33
/ref> In 1945 there was a hunters colony near the mouth of the fjord and a US run weather station was established on the Skaergaard intrusion. The weather station was moved in 1949 to North Apulileeq ''(Nordre Aputiteq)'' island, located about 45 km to the southwest off Cape Edvard Holm.

Geography

This fjord is located in

King Christian IX Land King Christian IX Land ( da, Kong Christian IX Land) is a coastal area of Southeastern Greenland in Sermersooq Municipality fronting the Denmark Strait and extending through the Arctic Circle from 65°N to 70°N. History This area was named i ...

, roughly midway between

Scoresby Sound Scoresby Sound (Danish: ''Scoresby Sund'', Greenlandic: ''Kangertittivaq'') is a large fjord system of the Greenland Sea on the eastern coast of Greenland. It has a tree-like structure, with a main body approximately Sermilik Fjord Sermilik ( da, Egede og Rothes Fjord) is a fjord in eastern Greenland. It is part of the Sermersooq municipality. The settlement of Tasiilaq is located about 15 km to the east of the mouth of the fjord. Geography This fjord, whose Gre ...

and marks the southern limit of the

Blosseville Coast The Blosseville Coast ( da, Blosseville Kyst) is a long stretch of coast in King Christian IX Land, eastern Greenland. Administratively it belongs to the Sermersooq Municipality. The Blosseville Coast is steep and difficult to access by ship owing ...

. It is the second-largest fjord in the southeastern coast of Greenland. Its waters are fed by the huge

Kangerlussuaq Glacier Kangerlussuaq Glacier ( kl, Kangerlussuaq, meaning 'large fjord'; old spelling ''Kangerdlugssuaq'') is the largest glacier on the east coast of the Greenland ice sheet. It flows into the head of the Kangerlussuaq Fjord, the second largest fjord i ...

, the largest

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

on the east coast 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 ...

, among other not so large active glaciers such as the

Hutchinson Glacier The Hutchinson Glacier ( da, Hutchinson Gletscher) is a large active glacier on the east coast of the Greenland ice sheet. This glacier was named after American aviator George R. Hutchinson who crash-landed and was stranded in the area in 1932 du ...

near its southern entrance. The fjord stretches inland in a roughly NW direction and its mouth is located between Cape Deichmann and Cape Hammer in the

Denmark Strait The Denmark Strait () or Greenland Strait ( , 'Greenland Sound') is an oceanic strait between Greenland to its northwest and Iceland to its southeast. The Norwegian island of Jan Mayen lies northeast of the strait. Geography The strait connect ...

area of the Atlantic Ocean. The Nordfjord, Courtauld Fjord, Amdrup Fjord ''(Atterteq)'' and Watkins Fjord ''(Torsukattak)'' are smaller side fjords within the Kangerlussuaq Fjord system.Christian Glahder: ''Hunting in Kangerlussuaq, East Greenland, 1951–1991. An Assessment of Local Knowledge'' (= ''Meddelelser om Grønland, Man & Society'', Nr. 19, 1995)
p. 10
(englisch) Kraemer Island lies at the entrance of Watkins Fjord, separated from the

on the northern shore of Kangerlussuaq Fjord by the narrow Uttental Sund. Kangerlussuaq Fjord is a deep fjord with strong and dangerous currents.

Mountains

Near the fjord's entrance its sides widen, forming an impressive bay surrounded by towering cliffs and high mountains, such as the 1,660 m high Batbjerg to the northwest''Prostar Sailing Directions 2005 Greenland and Iceland Enroute'', p. 109 and the mountainous upland of the Nordfjord Plateau to the northeast. The Redekammen and the Kangerlussuaq Tinde are

nunatak A nunatak (from Inuit ''nunataq'') is the summit or ridge of a mountain that protrudes from an ice field or glacier that otherwise covers most of the mountain or ridge. They are also called glacial islands. Examples are natural pyramidal peaks. ...

s located to the west, the Prince of Wales Range ''(Prinsen af Wales Bjerge)'' is located to the north and the

Lemon Range The Lemon Range or Lemon Mountains ( da, Lemon Bjerge) is a mountain range in King Christian IX Land, eastern Greenland. Administratively this range is part of the Sermersooq Municipality. History The range was named by Gino Watkins after Captai ...

to the east of the fjord. The

Crown Prince Frederick Range The Crown Prince Frederick Range ( da, Kronprins Frederik Bjerge) is a large mountain range in King Christian IX Land, eastern Greenland. Administratively this range is part of the Sermersooq Municipality. Despite being relatively unknown it has ...

stretches southwestwards to the southwest of the fjord.

Geology

The area around Kangerlussuaq has been known for its unique geology since the 1930s regarding the many intrusions where magma from the earth's interior has been forced into the earth's crust. The

that was discovered by

Lawrence Wager Lawrence Rickard Wager, commonly known as Bill Wager, (5 February 1904 – 20 November 1965) was a British geologist, explorer and mountaineer, described as "one of the finest geological thinkers of his generation"Vincent and best remembered for ...

in 1931 during the British Arctic Air Route Expedition is especially well-known.Per Ivar Haug:
Gazetteer of Greenland
'' (= ''Til Opplysning'' Nr. 15), Universitätsbibliothek Trondheim, Trondheim 2005,

Climate

Tundra climate The tundra climate is a polar climate sub-type located in high latitudes and high mountains. undra climate https://www.britannica.com/science/tundra-climateThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2019 It is classified as ET according to Köppen ...

prevails in the region of the fjord. The average annual temperature in the Kangerlussuaq Fjord area is -11 °C . The warmest month is July when the average temperature rises to 2 °C, and the coldest is March, with -18 °C.

Bibliography

Notes

References

External links

*
Cruise Report - British Oceanographic Data Centre
{{Authority control Fjords of Greenland