Mountain Ranges, Deserts and Landforms of Greenland

Geography

King Christian X Land stretches above the Arctic Circle between the Scoresby Sound at 70°N and the Bessel Fjord at 76°N. It is bordered by King Christian IX Land on the south, King Frederik VIII Land to the north, and the Greenland Ice Sheet to the west. All its territory is included in the large Northeast Greenland National Park zone.

It includes the Stauning Alps, Scoresby Land, as well as the vast glacier and fjord expanses of northeastern Greenland between the ice sheet area west of the Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord and the eastern end of Wollaston Foreland in the shore of the Greenland Sea.

The area is uninhabited except for Daneborg station, Zackenberg research facility located near the Zackenberg mountain. and the Mestersvig military outpost.

History

This area was named after King Christian X of Denmark and Iceland (r. 1912–1947). At the time of the Three-year Expedition to East Greenland, it is reported that, when Lauge Koch was planning to fly over the region in 1932, he said: Let’s get this over with as quickly as possible and then we can call the whole thing King Christian X Land.

The name 'King Christian X Land' was first used on the 1932 1:1 million scale Danish Geodesic Institute map. At that time the area was occupied by Norway and was renamed 'Erik the Red's Land' (Eirik Raudes Land) but the Permanent Court of International Justice ruled against Norway in 1933 and the country subsequently abandoned its claims.

Geography

King Frederik VIII Land stretches between 76°N along the middle of the Bessel Fjord in the south and 81°N, the boundary running along the middle of the Independence Fjord and the Academy Glacier. It is bordered by King Christian X Land on the south, the Wandel Sea to the north, Peary Land to the northwest, and the Greenland Ice Sheet to the west. All its territory is included in the large Northeast Greenland National Park zone.

King Frederik VIII Land includes mountain ranges, such as the Princess Caroline-Mathilde Alps, nunataks, such as Queen Louise Land, and vast glacier expanses, such as the Storstrømmen, the Zachariæ Isstrøm and the Nioghalvfjerdsbrae of far northeastern Greenland.

History

This vast desolate region was still uncharted territory around 1900. It was explored by the 1906–08 Denmark Expedition, the 1909–12 Alabama Expedition and by J.P. Koch's 1912–13 Danish Expedition to Queen Louise Land, when the ruling monarch was Frederik VIII (1843–1912).

The area between 79° and 81°30´N was first marked as 'King Frederik VIII Land', after King Frederik VIII of Denmark then the ruling monarch, by the 1906–08 Denmark Expedition in its maps of the region. Einar Storgaard used the name again in a 1927 map, and he also proposed a division of the region into a northern and a southern part with a border along Nioghalvfjerd Fjord.

Geography

King Christian IX Land is bordered by King Frederick VI Coast on the south, King Christian X Land and the Scoresby Sound to the north, and the Greenland Ice Sheet to the west. Greenland's highest mountain range, the Watkins Range, as well as the nearly as high Schweizerland are located in this region.

The shore area of King Christian IX Land includes the Blosseville Coast to the east. There are many fjords, the largest of which are Sermilik, Kangerlussuaq and Kangertittivatsiaq, as well as numerous coastal islands, including Ammassalik which is the site of the most populous town in Eastern Greenland, Tasiilaq.

On the coast itself there are some small settlements, such as Sermiligaaq, but areas far from the coast are uninhabited.

Geography

This large and flat ice cap is separated from the Greenland ice sheet and is the largest independent ice cap in Greenland. It is located between the Wandel Sea to the north and Amdrup Land and Antarctic Bay to the south. Romer Lake and the Princess Elizabeth Alps extend southwestwards at the western end and to the east lies the Fram Strait and the Greenland Sea. The ice cap covers most of the northern part of Crown Prince Christian Land and is about 8,500 km2 (3,300 sq mi) in area. The underlying bedrock is roughly 100 m (330 ft) above sea level.

The Flade Isblink has two ice domes, the North Dome and the larger South Dome. Kilen is a roughly triangular stretch of unglaciated flat land in the eastern shore with its apex in the ice cap between the two domes.

Geography

Crown Prince Christian Land extends 100 km NE from Cape Jungersen. It is a largely glaciated peninsula surrounded to the north by the Wandel Sea of the Arctic Ocean, to the east by Fram Strait, to the south by the Ingolf Fjord and the Greenland Sea, with Antarctic Bay, and to the west by the Greenland Ice Sheet. The northern section of the peninsula is known as Erik S. Henius Land. In the northwest the smaller Princess Ingeborg Peninsula consists mostly of lowland. The southeastern part is mountainous and is known as Amdrup Land. The outer part of Crown Prince Christian Land is almost totally covered by the Flade Isblink ice cap.

Geography

Peary Land is bounded by the Lincoln Sea (west of Cape Morris Jesup) and Wandel Sea of the Arctic Ocean in the north. Oodaaq island, the northernmost point of land of the world, lies off the north coast. Frederick E. Hyde Fjord, which cuts into Peary Land from the east 150 kilometres (93 mi) deep, divides it into Northern Peary Land and Southern Peary Land. Cape Eiler Rasmussen is the easternmost point. The coastline is deeply indented by smaller fjords, such as G.B. Schley Fjord and Hellefisk Fjord in the east, and Sands Fjord, Benedict Fjord, J.P. Koch Fjord, De Long Fjord and Weyprecht Fjord in the west. Børglum River, the largest river in Greenland, is located in Peary Land.

Peary Land is not part of any municipality but belongs to the Northeast Greenland National Park.

History

Peary Land was historically inhabited by three separate cultures, during which times the climate was milder than presently. It contains the northernmost ruins on earth, an archaeological site found in 2023.

The area is named after Robert E. Peary, who first explored it during his expedition of 1891 to 1892. Originally, Peary Land was believed to be an island, separated from the main island by the so-called Peary Channel, an assumed connection between Nordenskiöld Fjord and Independence Fjord which in fact does not exist. Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen (1872–1907), the ill-fated leader of the Denmark expedition, searched in vain for the Peary Channel in 1907 and was misled to his death by existing maps. Knud Rasmussen's First Thule Expedition confirmed in 1912 that Peary Land is a peninsula.

Geography

Nyeboe Land is located to the northeast of Hall Land in the west, and southwest of Hendrik Island and west of Warming Land and the Steensby Glacier in the east. It is bounded to the north by the Lincoln Sea and to the east by Saint George Fjord. Newman Fjord (Newman Bay) marks the western limit of Nyeboe Land. To the south and southeast the peninsula is attached to the mainland and its ice cap. The Dreyer Firn is located in the southwest, near the Saint George Fjord's shore. There are three small bays in the northern shore, Repulse Harbour, Hand Bay and Frankfield Bay, from west to east.

Nyeboe Land is largely unglaciated and mountainous. 1,100 metres (3,609 ft) high Punch Mountain, the highest elevation of the peninsula, is located at the northern end.

Geography

Jameson Land is bounded to the south by Scoresby Sound (the world's largest fjord), to the northwest by the Stauning Alps, to the north by Scoresby Land, to the northeast by the Fleming Fjord and the Nathorst Fjord of the Greenland Sea, and to the east by Carlsberg Fjord, the smaller Liverpool Land peninsula branching off, and Hurry Inlet. Its northeastern end is Cape Biot.

Jameson Land experiences a tundra climate (Köppen: ET); with short, cool summers and long, frigid winters. Temperature & humidity data within the weatherbox below was recorded from the Nerlerit Inaat Airport (2002-2020) and precipitation was sourced from Uunarteq (1958-1980).

Geology

Jameson Land mainly consists of a tilted peneplain of Jurassic sandstone, highest in the east. In the northern end there are also rocks of Triassic age. Two formations are predominant in Jameson Land: the Triassic Fleming Fjord Formation and the Jurassic Kap Stewart Formation.

Triassic fossils of the Fleming Fjord Formation in Jameson Land include: the dipnoi Ceratodus, prosauropod and theropod dinosaurs bones and tracks, sauropod tracks, phytosaurs, temnospondyls, and sharks.

Ecology

The peninsula's flora includes alpine foxtail, arctic bell-heather, arctic willow, Bigelow's sedge, bog blueberries, various types of cottongrass, dwarf birch, Kentucky bluegrass, moss campion, mountain avens, varioues sedges, slim-stem small reed grass, wideleaf polargrass and the fungus Stereocaulon alpinum.

The peninsula is home to muskoxen, who sustain themselves off mainly willows during summer and various graminoids during winter.