Queen Margrethe II Land ( da, Dronning Margrethe II Land) is a
peninsula in the northern limit of
King Christian X Land
King Christian X Land ( da, Kong Christian X Land) is an area of northeastern Greenland.
History
This area was named after King Christian X of Denmark and Iceland (1870 – 1947), who rose to the throne in 1912. At the time of the Three-year ...
, northeastern
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 i ...
.
Administratively it belongs to the
NE Greenland National Park area.
History
The peninsula was named after
Queen Margrethe II
Margrethe II (; Margrethe Alexandrine Þórhildur Ingrid, born 16 April 1940) is Queen of Denmark. Having reigned as Denmark's monarch for over 50 years, she is Europe's longest-serving current head of state and the world's only incumbent femal ...
of
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark
, establish ...
on 16 April 1990 on the occasion of her 50th birthday.
In 1932 a Norwegian hunting station was built at the southern end of Hochstetter Foreland, on the western shore of
Peters Bay
Peters Bay ( da, Peters Bugt) is a bay of the Greenland Sea in King Christian X Land, Greenland. Administratively it belongs to the NE Greenland National Park area. History
The bay was first surveyed by Carl Koldewey during the 1869–70 Second ...
, by the mouth of
Ardencaple Fjord. It was named
Jonsbu ''(Jónsbú)'' after Norwegian trapper
John Schjelderup Giæver
John Schjelderup Giæver (31 December 1901 – 9 November 1970) was a Norwegian author and polar researcher.
Jónsbú Station in NE Greenland was named after him.
Personal life
He was born in Tromsø in Troms, Norway. He was the son of law ...
(1901–1970). The station was destroyed in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
Geography
Queen Margrethe II Land is bounded in the west by the
Ejnar Mikkelsen Glacier, in the north by the
Bessel Fjord
Bessel Fjord is a fjord in northeastern Greenland. Administratively it belongs to the NE Greenland National Park area. History
The area around the mouth of this fjord was referred to as "Bessel Bay" at the time of the 1869–70 Second German Nor ...
, in the east by the
Greenland Sea, in the southeast by the
Shannon Sound
Shannon may refer to:
People
* Shannon (given name)
* Shannon (surname)
* Shannon (American singer), stage name of singer Shannon Brenda Greene (born 1958)
* Shannon (South Korean singer), British-South Korean singer and actress Shannon Arrum Wil ...
—with
Shannon Island
Shannon Island ( da, Shannon Ø) is a large island in Northeast Greenland National Park in eastern Greenland, to the east of Hochstetter Foreland, with an area of . It was named by Douglas Charles Clavering on his 1823 expedition for the Royal N ...
across it to the east, and in the south by the
Ardencaple Fjord and the
Bredefjord.
Adolf S. Jensen Land lies to the north of the Bessel Fjord.
Haystack
Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticated ...
is the peninsula's easternmost point.
The peninsula has two distinct parts:
*Norlund Land ''(Nørlund Land)'', the northern section, all mountainous.
The name was given by
Lauge Koch
Lauge Koch (5 July 1892 – 5 June 1964) was a Danish geologist and Arctic explorer.
Biography
Lauge Koch was born in 1892 to Karl and Elisabeth Koch. His development as a scientist was greatly influenced by his father's second cousin Johan P ...
following aerial observations during the 1931 - 1934
Three-year Expedition to East Greenland
The Three-year Expedition ( da, Treårsekspeditionen) was an exploratory expedition to East Greenland that lasted from 1931 to 1934 financed by the Carlsberg Foundation and the Danish state. The expedition included aerial surveys.
Many geograph ...
in honour of
N.E. Nørlund (1885–1980), the director of the Danish
Geodesic Institute at that time. In the same manner as with the
Norlund Alps
The Norlund Alps ( da, Nørlund Alper) are a mountain range in King Christian X Land, East Greenland. Administratively these mountains are part of the Northeast Greenland National Park.Google Earth History
The range was named during the 1929–1 ...
further south, Norlund requested that the name should not be printed on official maps until after his death.
*Hochstetter Foreland ''(Hochstetter Forland)'' is the flat part jutting to the south and southeast.
The
wetland
A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...
s of Hochstetter Foreland are mostly
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 mou ...
dotted with small lakes. Since it is an important place for staging
geese
A goose ( : geese) is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera '' Anser'' (the grey geese and white geese) and ''Branta'' (the black geese). Some other birds, mostly related to the she ...
in their long journeys —such as the
Pink-footed goose
The pink-footed goose (''Anser brachyrhynchus'') is a goose which breeds in eastern Greenland, Iceland and Svalbard. It is migratory, wintering in northwest Europe, especially Ireland, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and western Denmark. The nam ...
''(Anser brachyrhynchus)'', as well as for different species of waterbirds, the area was declared a
Ramsar site in 1988.
Mountains
The highest elevation of Queen Margrethe II Land is a high unnamed mountain in the southern part of Norlund Land.
GoogleEarth
Google Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satellite images, aerial photography, and geog ...
The main mountains in the peninsula are
Møbius Bjerg and
Schneekoppe in the north and the
Barth Range,
Matterhorn
The (, ; it, Cervino, ; french: Cervin, ; rm, Matterhorn) is a mountain of the Alps, straddling the main watershed and border between Switzerland and Italy. It is a large, near-symmetric pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of the ...
and
Wildspitze
Wildspitze () is the highest mountain in the Ötztal Alps and in North Tyrol, as well as the second highest mountain in Austria after the Großglockner and in terms of prominence (2261 m) is the fourth summit of the Alps and the fifteenth of Eur ...
in the southern area.
See also
*
Erik the Red's Land
Erik the Red's Land ( no, Eirik Raudes Land) was the name given by Norwegians to an area on the coast of eastern Greenland occupied by Norway in the early 1930s. It was named after Erik the Red, the founder of the first Norse or Viking settlement ...
*
SS Buskø
References
External links
The Jurassic of North-East Greenland - GEUS Peninsulas of Greenland
Ramsar sites in Greenland
{{greenland-geo-stub