Misplaced Pages

#618381

100-592: Fram Strait is the northernmost ocean area having ice-free conditions throughout the year. The width of the strait is about 450 km, but because of the wide continental shelves of Greenland and Spitsbergen, the deep portion of Fram Strait is only about 300 km wide. The ocean over the Greenland continental shelf is often covered with ice. Within Fram Strait, the sill connecting the Arctic and Fram Strait

200-660: A maritime border , to the west and southwest across Nares Strait and Baffin Bay, as well as a shared land border on Hans Island ; and Iceland, southeast of Greenland in the Atlantic Ocean. Greenland also contains the world's largest national park , and it is the largest constituent country by area in the world, and is the fourth largest country subdivision in the world , after Sakha Republic in Russia, Australia's state of Western Australia , and Russia's Krasnoyarsk Krai , and

300-476: A series of expeditions to Greenland and Arctic waterways to locate the lost eastern Norse settlement and assert Danish-Norwegian sovereignty over Greenland. The expeditions were mostly unsuccessful, partly due to leaders who lacked experience with the difficult Arctic ice and weather conditions, and partly because the expedition leaders were given instructions to search for the Eastern Settlement on

400-455: A continental shelf differs significantly from the geological definition. UNCLOS states that the shelf extends to the limit of the continental margin , but no less than 200 nmi (370 km; 230 mi) and no more than 350 nmi (650 km; 400 mi) from the baseline . Thus inhabited volcanic islands such as the Canaries , which have no actual continental shelf, nonetheless have

500-832: A distance where the depth of waters admitted of resource exploitation were claimed by the marine nations that signed the Convention on the Continental Shelf drawn up by the UN's International Law Commission in 1958. This was partly superseded by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The 1982 convention created the 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) exclusive economic zone, plus continental shelf rights for states with physical continental shelves that extend beyond that distance. The legal definition of

600-464: A few exceptions, the shelf break is located at a remarkably uniform depth of roughly 140 m (460 ft); this is likely a hallmark of past ice ages, when sea level was lower than it is now. The continental slope is much steeper than the shelf; the average angle is 3°, but it can be as low as 1° or as high as 10°. The slope is often cut with submarine canyons . The physical mechanisms involved in forming these canyons were not well understood until

700-517: A legal continental shelf, whereas uninhabitable islands have no shelf. Greenland Greenland ( Greenlandic : Kalaallit Nunaat , pronounced [kalaːɬːit nʉnaːt] ; Danish : Grønland , pronounced [ˈkʁɶnˌlænˀ] ) is a North American island autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the larger of two autonomous territories within the Kingdom,

800-423: A line of up to 16 moorings across Fram Strait. The mooring line has been maintained since 1997 with a spacing of roughly 25 km . At up to five different depths, the moored array measures the water velocity, temperature, and salinity of the water column. Computer simulations suggest that 60 to 70% of the fluctuation of the sea ice flowing through the Fram Strait is correlated with a 6–7 year fluctuation in which

900-684: A maximum depth of 5,550 m (18,210 ft) ±14 m (46 ft)(See also: Litke Deep ). The Yermak Plateau , with a mean depth of about 650 m, lies to the northwest of Spitsbergen. Historically, Fram Strait was home to a large population of Bowhead whales , then called the Greenland right whale . By mid-17th century, the Svalbard population of Bowhead whales was reduced to near extinction by excessive whaling (See also: Whaling in Spitsbergen ; Smeerenburg ). Western Fram Strait may be

1000-486: A number lost their cultural ties to Greenland. While the policies "succeeded" in the sense of shifting Greenlanders from being primarily subsistence hunters into being urbanized wage earners, the Greenlandic elite began to reassert a Greenlandic cultural identity. A movement developed in favour of independence, reaching its peak in the 1970s. As a consequence of political complications in relation to Denmark's entry into

1100-662: A personal union with Denmark in 1380, and from 1397 was a part of the Kalmar Union . The Norse settlements, such as Brattahlíð , thrived for centuries, before disappearing in the 15th century, perhaps at the onset of the Little Ice Age . Except some runic inscriptions, the only contemporary records or historiography that survives from the Norse settlements is of their contact with Iceland or Norway. Medieval Norwegian sagas and historical works mention Greenland's economy,

SECTION 10

#1732765344619

1200-494: A result of the COVID-19 pandemic ; one source describes it as being the "biggest economic victim of the coronavirus" (the overall economy did not suffer too severely as of mid-2020, thanks to the fisheries "and a hefty subsidy from Copenhagen"). Greenland's goal for returning tourism is to develop it "right" and to "build a more sustainable tourism for the long run". Greenland is the world's largest non-continental island and

1300-464: A sense of self-reliance through self-government and independent communication with the outside world. Despite this change, in 1946 a commission including the highest Greenlandic council, the Landsrådene , recommended patience and no radical reform of the system. Two years later, the first step towards a change of government was initiated when a grand commission was established. A final report (G-50)

1400-403: A separate people under international law . Denmark maintains control of foreign affairs and defence matters. Denmark upholds the annual block grant of 3.2 billion Danish kroner, but as Greenland begins to collect revenues of its natural resources, the grant will gradually be diminished. This is generally considered to be a step toward eventual full independence from Denmark. Greenlandic

1500-517: A wintering ground for this Critically Endangered population. The use of the name "Fram Strait" for the passage between Spitsbergen and Greenland appears to have come into common use in the oceanographic literature in the 1970s. Fram Strait is named after the Norwegian ship Fram . In an 1893 expedition led by Fridtjof Nansen , the Fram drifted for two years across the Arctic before exiting

1600-504: Is 2,166,086 km (836,330 sq mi) (including other offshore minor islands), of which the Greenland ice sheet covers 1,755,637 km (677,855 sq mi) (81%) and has a volume of approximately 2,850,000 km (680,000 cu mi). The highest point on Greenland is Gunnbjørn Fjeld at 3,700 m (12,100 ft) of the Watkins Range ( East Greenland mountain range ). The majority of Greenland, however,

1700-675: Is 2545 m deep. The Knipovich Ridge , the northernmost section of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge , extends northward through the strait to connect to the Nansen-Gakkel Ridge of the Arctic Ocean. A rift valley , caused by sea-floor spreading , runs adjacent and parallel to the Knipovich Ridge. The Molloy Deep within Fram Strait is the deepest point of the Arctic. This small basin at 79°8.5′N and 2°47′E has

1800-432: Is concentrated mainly on the southwest coast, and the rest of the island is sparsely populated. Three-quarters of Greenland is covered by the only permanent ice sheet outside Antarctica . With a population of 56,583 (2022), Greenland is the least densely populated region in the world. Sixty-seven percent of its electricity production comes from renewable energy, mostly from hydropower . The early Norse settlers named

1900-469: Is evidence that changing wind, rainfall, and regional ocean currents in a warming ocean are having an effect on some shelf seas. Improved data collection via Integrated Ocean Observing Systems in shelf sea regions is making identification of these changes possible. Continental shelves teem with life because of the sunlight available in shallow waters, in contrast to the biotic desert of the oceans' abyssal plain . The pelagic (water column) environment of

2000-461: Is less than 1,500 m (4,900 ft) in elevation. Below the ice there is a series of canyons, the biggest called Greenland’s Grand Canyon which was formed by flowing rivers of water from the repeated cycle of ice melting and new ice forming. Near the coast elevations rise suddenly and steeply. The ice flows generally to the coast from the centre of the island. A survey led by French scientist Paul-Emile Victor in 1951 concluded that, under

2100-725: Is low compared with other countries (over one million species have been described worldwide). The sea is rich in fish and invertebrates, especially in the milder West Greenland Current ; a large part of the Greenland fauna is associated with marine-based food chains, including large colonies of seabirds. The few native land mammals in Greenland include the polar bear , reindeer (introduced by Europeans), arctic fox , arctic hare , musk ox , collared lemming , ermine , and arctic wolf . The last four are found naturally only in East Greenland , having immigrated from Ellesmere Island . There are dozens of species of seals and whales along

SECTION 20

#1732765344619

2200-423: Is not part of any municipality, but it is the site of the world's largest national park, Northeast Greenland National Park . At least four scientific expedition stations and camps had been established on the ice sheet in the ice-covered central part of Greenland (indicated as pale blue in the adjacent map): Eismitte , North Ice , North GRIP Camp and The Raven Skiway. There is a year-round station Summit Camp on

2300-421: Is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea . Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods . The shelf surrounding an island is known as an insular shelf . The continental margin , between the continental shelf and the abyssal plain , comprises a steep continental slope, surrounded by the flatter continental rise , in which sediment from

2400-450: Is the world's largest island , and is the location of the northernmost point of land in the world – Kaffeklubben Island off the northern coast is the world's northernmost undisputed point of land , and Cape Morris Jesup on the mainland was thought to be so until the 1960s. Though a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe (specifically Norway and Denmark,

2500-454: The Skrælings (Norse word for Inuit, meaning "wretches" ). Recent archeological studies somewhat challenge the general assumption that the Norse colonization had a dramatic negative environmental effect on the vegetation. Data support traces of a possible Norse soil amendment strategy. More recent evidence suggests that the Norse, who never numbered more than about 2,500, gradually abandoned

2600-632: The 2008 Greenlandic self-government referendum , Greenlanders voted for the Self-Government Act, which transferred more power from the Danish government to the local Naalakkersuisut (Greenlandic government). Under this structure, Greenland gradually assumed responsibility for a number of governmental services and areas of competence. The Danish government retains control of citizenship, monetary policy, and foreign affairs, including defence. Most residents of Greenland are Inuit. The population

2700-725: The Arctic Ocean . The northward velocity is maximum in winter, so the heat transport is highest in winter. On the west side of the strait, the East Greenland Current flows southward on the Greenland Shelf. The current carries is relatively cold and fresh water out of the Arctic that corresponds to a water mass called Polar water. The Fram Strait area is located downwind of the Transpolar Drift and therefore covered by multi-year ice in

2800-481: The Arctic Ocean . In the past century, the sea surface temperature at Fram Strait has on average warmed roughly 1.9 °C (3.5 °F), and is 1.4 °C (2.5 °F) warmer than during the Medieval Warm Period . 78°0′N 0°0′W  /  78.000°N -0.000°E  / 78.000; -0.000 Continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that

2900-522: The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation , or AMOC, by diluting key currents, slowing it down. Due to this meltwater input, the circulation may even collapse outright, with widespread detrimental effects, although research suggests this is only likely if highest possible warming is sustained for multiple centuries. Greenland ice sheet has a great volume of ~2,900,000 cubic kilometres (696,000 cu mi). This means that if it were all to melt,

3000-710: The European Economic Community (EEC) upon achieving self-rule, as it did not agree with the EEC's commercial fishing regulations and an EEC ban on seal skin products. Greenland voters approved a referendum on greater autonomy on 25 November 2008. According to one study, the 2008 vote created what "can be seen as a system between home rule and full independence". On 21 June 2009, Greenland gained self-rule with provisions for assuming responsibility for self-government of judicial affairs , policing, and natural resources . Also, Greenlanders were recognized as

3100-542: The Icelandic Low Pressure system extends eastward into the Barents Sea . The amount of sea ice passing through the Fram Strait varies from year to year and affects the global climate through its influence on thermohaline circulation . The warming in the Fram Strait region has likely amplified Arctic shrinkage , and serves as a positive feedback mechanism for transporting more internal energy to

Fram Strait - Misplaced Pages Continue

3200-482: The Persian Gulf . The average width of continental shelves is about 80 km (50 mi). The depth of the shelf also varies, but is generally limited to water shallower than 100 m (330 ft). The slope of the shelf is usually quite low, on the order of 0.5°; vertical relief is also minimal, at less than 20 m (66 ft). Though the continental shelf is treated as a physiographic province of

3300-494: The Skaergaard intrusion . Notable rock provinces ( metamorphic igneous rocks, ultramafics, and anorthosites) are found on the southwest coast at Qeqertarsuatsiaat. East of Nuuk, the banded iron ore region of Isukasia, over three billion years old, contains the world's oldest rocks, such as greenlandite (a rock composed predominantly of hornblende and hyperthene), formed 3.8 billion years ago, and nuummite. In southern Greenland,

3400-591: The Western Settlement , and the Middle Settlement —on fjords near the southwestern tip of the island. They shared the island with the late Dorset culture inhabitants, who occupied the northern and western parts, and later with those of the Thule culture, who entered from the north. Norse Greenlanders submitted to Norwegian rule in 1261 under the Kingdom of Norway . The Kingdom of Norway entered

3500-406: The abyssal plain . The continental shelf and the slope are part of the continental margin . The shelf area is commonly subdivided into the inner continental shelf , mid continental shelf , and outer continental shelf , each with their specific geomorphology and marine biology . The character of the shelf changes dramatically at the shelf break, where the continental slope begins. With

3600-408: The ocean , it is not part of the deep ocean basin proper, but the flooded margins of the continent. Passive continental margins such as most of the Atlantic coasts have wide and shallow shelves, made of thick sedimentary wedges derived from long erosion of a neighboring continent. Active continental margins have narrow, relatively steep shelves, due to frequent earthquakes that move sediment to

3700-563: The 1920s suggest that the condition of human bones from this period indicates that the Norse population was malnourished, possibly because of soil erosion resulting from the Norsemen's destruction of natural vegetation in the course of farming, turf-cutting, and wood-cutting. Malnutrition may also have resulted from widespread deaths from pandemic plague; the decline in temperatures during the Little Ice Age; and armed conflicts with

3800-414: The 1960s. Continental shelves cover an area of about 27 million km (10 million sq mi), equal to about 7% of the surface area of the oceans. The width of the continental shelf varies considerably—it is not uncommon for an area to have virtually no shelf at all, particularly where the forward edge of an advancing oceanic plate dives beneath continental crust in an offshore subduction zone such as off

3900-486: The 2021 event, rain fell at Greenland's highest point for the first time in recorded history: an event so unexpected that the research station at the summit had no rain gauges for the occasion. As with the ice losses elsewhere, the melting of Greenland contributes to sea level rise. Between 2012 and 2017, this melting had added an average of 0.68 mm per year, which was equivalent to 37% of sea level rise from land ice sources (excluding thermal expansion of water from

4000-523: The Arctic through what is now known as Fram Strait. According to glaciologist and geographer Moira Dunbar , an early adopter of the name, the name "Fram Strait" originated in the Russian scientific literature. While in common use, particularly in the oceanographic scientific literature, the name appears to be unofficial. Fram Strait is the only deep-water connection between the World Oceans and

4100-688: The Arctic. Other gateways are the Barents Sea Opening (BSO), the Bering Strait and various small channels in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago . They are all shallower than Fram Strait, leaving Fram Strait the only route by which deep water can be exchanged between the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. This exchange occurs in both directions, with specific water masses identified with specific regions flowing between

Fram Strait - Misplaced Pages Continue

4200-692: The European Common Market in 1972, Denmark began to seek a different status for Greenland, resulting in the Home Rule Act of 1979. This gave Greenland limited autonomy with its own legislature taking control of some internal policies, while the Parliament of Denmark maintained full control of external policies, security, and natural resources. The law came into effect on 1 May 1979. The King of Denmark , Frederik X , remains Greenland's head of state . In 1985, Greenland left

4300-495: The Fram Strait." The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI) have maintained long term monitoring measurements in Fram Strait to obtain volume- and energy-budgets through this choke point. The observations also serve to assess the development of the Arctic Ocean as a sink for terrestrial organic carbon . The AWI=NPI observing array consists of

4400-447: The Greenland settlements over the 15th century as walrus ivory , the most valuable export from Greenland, decreased in price because of competition with other sources of higher-quality ivory, and that there was actually little evidence of starvation or difficulties. Other explanations of the disappearance of the Norse settlements have been proposed: The Thule people are the ancestors of the current Greenlandic population. No genes from

4500-727: The Illimaussaq alkaline complex consists of pegmatites such as nepheline, syenites (especially kakortokite or naujaite) and sodalite (sodalite-foya). In Ivittuut, where cryolite was formerly mined, there are fluoride -bearing pegmatites. To the north of Igaliku, there are the Gardar alkaline pegmatitic intrusions of augite syenite, gabbro, etc. To the west and southwest are Palaeozoic carbonatite complexes at Kangerlussuaq (Gardiner complex) and Safartoq, and basic and ultrabasic igneous rocks at Uiffaq on Disko Island, where there are masses of heavy native iron up to 25 t (28 short tons) in

4600-675: The Inuit. It is republished in The Norse Atlantic Sagas , by Gwyn Jones. Jones reports that there is also an account of perhaps the same incident, of more doubtful provenance, told by the Norse side. In 1500, King Manuel I of Portugal sent Gaspar Corte-Real to Greenland in search of a Northwest Passage to Asia which, according to the Treaty of Tordesillas , was part of Portugal's sphere of influence. In 1501, Corte-Real returned with his brother, Miguel Corte-Real . Finding

4700-410: The Law of the Sea , the name continental shelf was given a legal definition as the stretch of the seabed adjacent to the shores of a particular country to which it belongs. The shelf usually ends at a point of increasing slope (called the shelf break ). The sea floor below the break is the continental slope . Below the slope is the continental rise , which finally merges into the deep ocean floor,

4800-523: The Little Ice Age showed a significant decrease in maximum summer temperatures beginning about the turn of the 14th century—as much as 6 to 8 °C (11 to 14 °F) lower than modern summer temperatures. The study also found that the lowest winter temperatures of the last 2,000 years occurred in the late 14th century and early 15th century. The Eastern Settlement was probably abandoned in the early to mid-15th century, during this cold period . Theories drawn from archeological excavations at Herjolfsnes in

4900-603: The Norse. When it re-established contact with Greenland in the early 17th century, Denmark-Norway asserted its sovereignty over the island. In 1721 a joint mercantile and clerical expedition led by Dano-Norwegian missionary Hans Egede was sent to Greenland, not knowing whether a Norse civilization remained there. This expedition is part of the Dano-Norwegian colonization of the Americas . After 15 years in Greenland, Hans Egede left his son Paul Egede in charge of

5000-601: The Oceans. Water with characteristics of the deep Canadian and Eurasian Basins of the Arctic are observed leaving the Arctic in the deep western side of Fram Strait, for example. On the eastern side, cold water from the Norwegian Sea is observed entering the Arctic below the West Spitsbergen Current. In recent years the nature and interactions of these water masses have been changing, symptoms of

5100-462: The Paleo-Inuit have been found in the present population of Greenland. The Thule culture migrated eastward from what is now known as Alaska around 1000 AD, reaching Greenland around 1300. The Thule culture was the first to introduce to Greenland such technological innovations as dog sleds and toggling harpoons . There is an account of contact and conflict with the Norse population, as told by

SECTION 50

#1732765344619

5200-542: The United States developed a geopolitical interest in Greenland and in 1946 offered to buy the island from Denmark for $ 100,000,000; the Danish rejected the offer. In the 21st century, the United States remains interested in investing in the resource base of Greenland and in tapping hydrocarbons off the Greenlandic coast. In August 2019, the US again proposed to buy the country, prompting premier Kim Kielsen to issue

5300-500: The atlas's editor, commented: In the last two or three decades, global warming has reduced the size of glaciers throughout the Arctic and earlier this year, news sources confirmed what climate scientists already knew: water, not rock, lay beneath this ice bridge on the east coast of Greenland. More islets are likely to appear as the sheet of frozen water covering the world's largest island continues to melt. Some controversy surrounds

5400-546: The basalts. The paleontology of East Greenland is specially rich, with some of the early tetrapods such as the Devonian Acanthostega and Ichthyostega , and unique triassic animals such as the phytosaur Mystriosuchus alleroq and the dinosaurs Issi saaneq and tracks. Greenland is home to two ecoregions: Kalaallit Nunaat high arctic tundra and Kalaallit Nunaat low arctic tundra . There are approximately 700 known species of insects in Greenland, which

5500-546: The bishops of Gardar , and the collection of tithes. A chapter in the Konungs skuggsjá ( The King's Mirror ) describes Norse Greenland 's exports, imports, and grain cultivation. Icelandic saga accounts of life in Greenland were composed in the 13th century and later, and are not primary sources for the history of early Norse Greenland. Those accounts are closer to primary for more contemporaneous accounts of late Norse Greenland. Modern understanding therefore mostly depends on

5600-618: The changes occurring with the ocean's climate. Warm, salty water is transported northward from the Atlantic by the West Spitsbergen Current in the east of the strait. The West Spitsbergen Current is the northernmost branch of the North Atlantic Current system. This water forms a water mass called the Atlantic water. The sub-surface flow has a strong seasonality with a minimal volume transport in winter. This current transports internal energy into

5700-646: The coast of Chile or the west coast of Sumatra . The largest shelf—the Siberian Shelf in the Arctic Ocean —stretches to 1,500 kilometers (930 mi) in width. The South China Sea lies over another extensive area of continental shelf, the Sunda Shelf , which joins Borneo , Sumatra, and Java to the Asian mainland. Other familiar bodies of water that overlie continental shelves are the North Sea and

5800-567: The coast; sand is limited to shallow, wave-agitated waters, while silt and clays are deposited in quieter, deep water far offshore. These accumulate 15–40 centimetres (5.9–15.7 in) every millennium, much faster than deep-sea pelagic sediments . "Shelf seas" are the ocean waters on the continental shelf. Their motion is controlled by the combined influences of the tides , wind-forcing and brackish water formed from river inflows ( Regions of Freshwater Influence ). These regions can often be biologically highly productive due to mixing caused by

5900-414: The colonial powers) for more than a millennium, beginning in 986. Greenland has been inhabited at intervals over at least the last 4,500 years by circumpolar peoples whose forebears migrated there from what is now Canada. Norsemen settled the uninhabited southern part of Greenland beginning in the 10th century (having previously settled Iceland ), and the 13th century saw the arrival of Inuit . In

6000-484: The continent above cascades down the slope and accumulates as a pile of sediment at the base of the slope. Extending as far as 500 km (310 mi) from the slope, it consists of thick sediments deposited by turbidity currents from the shelf and slope. The continental rise 's gradient is intermediate between the gradients of the slope and the shelf. Under the United Nations Convention on

6100-420: The continental shelf constitutes the neritic zone , and the benthic (sea floor) province of the shelf is the sublittoral zone . The shelves make up less than 10% of the ocean, and a rough estimate suggests that only about 30% of the continental shelf sea floor receives enough sunlight to allow benthic photosynthesis. Though the shelves are usually fertile, if anoxic conditions prevail during sedimentation,

SECTION 60

#1732765344619

6200-552: The continual increase in the ocean heat content ). By the end of the century, the melting of Greenland alone would add between ~ 6 cm ( 2 + 1 ⁄ 2  in) if the temperatures are kept below 2 °C (3.6 °F), to around 13 cm (5 in) if the most intense climate change scenario with ever-increasing greenhouse gas emissions is followed. Under this scenario, the worst case for Greenland melting could reach 33 cm (13 in) of sea level rise equivalent. The large quantities of fresh meltwater also affect

6300-645: The control of the Danish monarch. Norway occupied then-uninhabited eastern Greenland as Erik the Red's Land in July 1931, claiming that it constituted terra nullius . Norway and Denmark agreed to submit the matter in 1933 to the Permanent Court of International Justice , which decided against Norway. Greenland's connection to Denmark was severed on 9 April 1940, early in World War ;II , after Denmark

6400-418: The deep sea. The continental shelves are covered by terrigenous sediments ; that is, those derived from erosion of the continents. However, little of the sediment is from current rivers ; some 60–70% of the sediment on the world's shelves is relict sediment , deposited during the last ice age, when sea level was 100–120 m lower than it is now. Sediments usually become increasingly fine with distance from

6500-433: The deposits may over geologic time become sources for fossil fuels . The continental shelf is the best understood part of the ocean floor, as it is relatively accessible. Most commercial exploitation of the sea, such as extraction of metallic ore, non-metallic ore, and hydrocarbons , takes place on the continental shelf. Sovereign rights over their continental shelves down to a depth of 100 m (330 ft) or to

6600-462: The early 17th century, Dano-Norwegian explorers reached Greenland again. When Denmark and Norway separated in 1814, Greenland was transferred to the Danish crown, and was fully integrated in the Danish state in 1953 under the Constitution of Denmark , which made the people in Greenland citizens of Denmark. In the 1979 Greenlandic home rule referendum , Denmark granted home rule to Greenland; in

6700-474: The east coast of Greenland just north of Cape Farewell , which is almost inaccessible due to southward drifting ice . The pilot on all three trips was English explorer James Hall . After the Norse settlements died off, Greenland came under the de facto control of various Inuit groups, but the Dano-Norwegian government never forgot or relinquished the claims to Greenland that it had inherited from

6800-582: The existence of a new island was announced. Named " Uunartoq Qeqertaq " (English: Warming Island ), this island has always been present off the coast of Greenland, but was covered by a glacier. This glacier was discovered in 2002 to be shrinking rapidly, and by 2007 had completely melted away, leaving the exposed island. The island was named Place of the Year by the Oxford Atlas of the World in 2007. Ben Keene,

6900-623: The facilities. After the collapse of the Third Reich, Albert Speer briefly considered escaping in a small aeroplane to hide out in Greenland, but changed his mind and decided to surrender to the United States Armed Forces . Greenland had been a protected and very isolated society until 1940. The Danish government had maintained a strict monopoly of Greenlandic trade , allowing no more than small scale barter trading with British whalers. In wartime Greenland developed

7000-447: The global sea levels would increase by ~7.4 m (24 ft) from that alone. However, it also means that it will take at least 1,000 years for the ice sheet to disappear even with very high warming, and in around 10,000 years under lower warming which still crosses the threshold for the ice sheet's disappearance. This threshold likely lies for the global warming between 1.7 °C (3.1 °F) and 2.3 °C (4.1 °F). Reducing

7100-405: The history of the island, specifically over whether the island might have been revealed during a brief warm period in Greenland during the mid-20th century. Greenland ice sheet always loses some mass from ice calving at its coasts, but it used to gain more ice on average due to the accumulation of snowfall. Yet, Greenland has been warming starting from around 1900, and starting from 1980s,

7200-614: The hope that the pleasant name would attract settlers. The Saga of Erik the Red states: "In the summer, Erik left to settle in the country he had found, which he called Greenland, as he said people would be attracted there if it had a favorable name." The name of the territory in the Greenlandic language is Kalaallit Nunaat ' land of the Kalaallit ' . The Kalaallit are the Greenlandic Inuit who inhabit

7300-422: The ice sheet, Greenland is composed of three large islands. This is disputed, but if it is so, they would be separated by narrow straits, reaching the sea at Ilulissat Icefjord , at Greenland's Grand Canyon and south of Nordostrundingen . All towns and settlements of Greenland are situated along the ice-free coast, with the population being concentrated along the west coast. The northeastern part of Greenland

7400-402: The ice sheet, established in 1989. The radio station Jørgen Brønlund Fjord was, until 1950, the northernmost permanent outpost in the world. The extreme north of Greenland, Peary Land , is not covered by an ice sheet, because the air there is too dry to produce snow, which is essential in the production and maintenance of an ice sheet. If the Greenland ice sheet were to melt away completely,

7500-545: The island Greenland . In the Icelandic sagas , the Norwegian Erik the Red was exiled from Iceland with his father, Thorvald, who had committed manslaughter. With his extended family and his thralls ( slaves or serfs ) , he set out in ships to explore an icy land known to lie to the northwest. After finding a habitable area and settling there, he named it Grœnland (translated as "Greenland"), supposedly in

7600-608: The largest in North America. The lowest temperature ever recorded in the Northern Hemisphere was recorded in Greenland, near the topographic summit of the Greenland Ice Sheet , on 22 December 1991, when the temperature reached −69.6 °C (−93.3 °F). In Nuuk, the average daily temperature varies over the seasons from −5.1 to 9.9 °C (22.8 to 49.8 °F). The total area of Greenland

7700-479: The losses became larger than the gains. After 1996, Greenland has not had a single year when it did not lose mass on average. In 2010s, Greenland ice sheet had been melting at its fastest rate over at least the past 12,000 years, and on track to exceed that later in the century. In 2012, 2019 and 2021, so-called "massive melting events" had occurred, when practically the entire surface of the ice sheet had been melting and no accumulation had been taking place. During

7800-417: The mission there and returned to Denmark, where he established a Greenland Seminary. This new colony was centred at Godthåb ("Good Hope") on the southwest coast. Gradually, Greenland was opened up to Danish merchants, but closed to those from other countries. When the union between the crowns of Denmark and Norway was dissolved in 1814, the Treaty of Kiel severed Norway's former colonies and left them under

7900-594: The other being the Faroe Islands ; the citizens of both territories are full citizens of Denmark . As Greenland is one of the Overseas Countries and Territories of the European Union , citizens of Greenland are European Union citizens . The capital and largest city of Greenland is Nuuk . Greenland lies between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago . It

8000-551: The past 100,000 years. Similarly the Icelandic Book of Settlements records famines during the winters, in which "the old and helpless were killed and thrown over cliffs". These Norse settlements vanished during the 14th and early 15th centuries. The demise of the Western Settlement coincides with a decrease in summer and winter temperatures. A study of North Atlantic seasonal temperature variability during

8100-557: The physical data from archeological sites. Interpretation of ice-core and clam-shell data suggests that between AD 800 and 1300 the regions around the fjords of southern Greenland had a relatively mild climate, several degrees Celsius warmer than usual in the North Atlantic with trees and herbaceous plants growing and livestock being farmed. Barley was grown as a crop up to the 70th parallel. The ice cores show that Greenland has had dramatic temperature shifts many times in

8200-577: The sea frozen, they headed south and arrived in Labrador and Newfoundland . Upon the brothers' return to Portugal, the cartographic information supplied by Corte-Real was incorporated into a new map of the world which was presented to Ercole I d'Este , Duke of Ferrara , by Alberto Cantino in 1502. The Cantino planisphere , made in Lisbon, accurately depicts the southern coastline of Greenland. In 1605–1607, King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway sent

8300-400: The shallower waters and the enhanced current speeds. Despite covering only about 8% of Earth's ocean surface area, shelf seas support 15–20% of global primary productivity . In temperate continental shelf seas, three distinctive oceanographic regimes are found, as a consequence of the interplay between surface heating, lateral buoyancy gradients (due to river inflow), and turbulent mixing by

8400-677: The site of Saqqaq, for which the culture is named. From 2400 BC to 1300 BC, the Independence I culture existed in northern Greenland. It was a part of the Arctic small-tool tradition . Towns, including Deltaterrasserne , appeared. About 800 BC, the Saqqaq culture disappeared and the Early Dorset culture emerged in western Greenland and the Independence II culture in northern Greenland. The Dorset culture

8500-442: The statement, "Greenland is not for sale and cannot be sold, but Greenland is open for trade and cooperation with other countries—including the United States." In 1950, Denmark agreed to allow the US to regain the use of Thule Air Base ; it was greatly expanded between 1951 and 1953 as part of a unified NATO Cold War defence strategy. The local population of three nearby villages was moved more than 100 km (62 miles) away in

8600-451: The system of government changed: Governor Eske Brun ruled the island under a law of 1925 that allowed governors to take control under extreme circumstances; Governor Aksel Svane was transferred to the United States to lead the commission to supply Greenland. The Danish Sirius Patrol guarded the northeastern shores of Greenland in 1942 using dog sleds. They detected several German weather stations and alerted American troops, who destroyed

8700-507: The territory's western region. In prehistoric times, Greenland was home to several successive Paleo-Inuit cultures known primarily through archaeological finds. The earliest entry of the Paleo-Inuit into Greenland is thought to have occurred about 2500 BC. From about 2500 BC to 800 BC, southern and western Greenland was inhabited by the Saqqaq culture . Most finds of remains from that period have been around Disko Bay , including

8800-727: The third largest area in North America after Canada and the United States. It is between latitudes 59° and 83°N , and longitudes 11° and 74°W . Greenland is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Greenland Sea to the east, the North Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, the Davis Strait to the southwest, Baffin Bay to the west, the Nares Strait and Lincoln Sea to the northwest. The nearest countries to Greenland are Canada, with which it shares

8900-459: The tides and to a lesser extent the wind. Indian Ocean shelf seas are dominated by major river systems, including the Ganges and Indus rivers. The shelf seas around New Zealand are complicated because the submerged continent of Zealandia creates wide plateaus. Shelf seas around Antarctica and the shores of the Arctic Ocean are influenced by sea ice production and polynya . There

9000-411: The warming back to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) above preindustrial levels or lower (such as through large-scale carbon dioxide removal ) would arrest the losses, but still cause greater ultimate sea level rise than if the threshold had never been exceeded. Further, 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) itself appears to commit the ice sheet to 1.4 m ( 4 + 1 ⁄ 2  ft) of sea level rise. The island

9100-497: The west of the strait, next to the coast of Greenland . Approximately 90% of sea ice exported from the Arctic is transported by the East Greenland Current. (Sea ice essentially corresponds to fresh water, since its salt content of 4 per mil is much less than the 35 per mil for sea water.) A 2019 estimate states that about "80% of the water exchanged between the Arctic ice cap and the world’s oceans passes through

9200-468: The winter. The United States tried to construct a subterranean network of secret nuclear missile launch sites in the Greenlandic ice cap, named Project Iceworm . According to documents declassified in 1996, this project was managed from Camp Century from 1960 to 1966 before abandonment as unworkable. The missiles were never fielded, and necessary consent from the Danish Government to do so

9300-403: The world's sea level would rise by more than 7 m (23 ft). In 2003, a small island, 35 m × 15 m (115 ft × 49 ft) in length and width, was discovered by arctic explorer Dennis Schmitt and his team at the coordinates of 83-42 . Whether this island is permanent is not yet confirmed. If it is, it is the northernmost permanent known land on Earth. In 2007,

9400-451: Was declared the sole official language of Greenland at the historic ceremony. Tourism increased significantly between 2015 and 2019, with the number of visitors increasing from 77,000 per year to 105,000. One source estimated that in 2019 the revenue from this aspect of the economy was about 450 million kroner (US$ 67 million). Like many aspects of the economy, this slowed dramatically in 2020 and into 2021, due to restrictions required as

9500-410: Was extended to Greenlanders. Danish policies toward Greenland consisted of a strategy of cultural assimilation — or de-Greenlandification. During this period, the Danish government promoted the exclusive use of the Danish language in official matters, and required Greenlanders to go to Denmark for their post-secondary education. Many Greenlandic children grew up in boarding schools in southern Denmark, and

9600-429: Was never sought. The Danish government did not become aware of the programme's mission until 1997, when they discovered it while looking, in the declassified documents, for records related to the crash of a nuclear equipped B-52  bomber at Thule in 1968. With the 1953 Danish constitution, Greenland's colonial status ended as the island was incorporated into the Danish realm as an amt (county). Danish citizenship

9700-705: Was occupied by Nazi Germany . On 8 April 1941, the United States occupied Greenland to defend it against a possible invasion by Germany. The United States' occupation of Greenland continued until 1945. Greenland was able to buy goods from the United States and Canada by selling cryolite from the mine at Ivittuut . In World War II , the United States military used Bluie as a code name for Greenland, where they kept several bases named "Bluie (East or West) (sequential numeral)". The major air bases were Bluie West-1 at Narsarsuaq and Bluie West-8 at Søndre Strømfjord (Kangerlussuaq), both of which are still used as Greenland's major international airports. During this war,

9800-666: Was part of the very ancient Precambrian continent of Laurentia , the eastern core of which forms the Greenland Shield, while the less exposed coastal strips become a plateau. On these ice-free coastal strips are sediments formed in the Precambrian , overprinted by metamorphism and now formed by glaciers, which continue into the Cenozoic and Mesozoic in parts of the island. In the east and west of Greenland there are remnants of flood basalts and igneous intrusions, such as

9900-604: Was presented in 1950, which recommended the introduction of a modern welfare state with Denmark's development as sponsor and model. In 1953, Greenland was made an equal part of the Danish Kingdom. Home rule was granted in 1979. In 1867, United States Secretary of State William H. Seward worked with former senator Robert J. Walker to explore the possibility of buying Greenland and, perhaps, Iceland . Opposition in Congress ended this project. Following World War II,

10000-668: Was the first culture to extend throughout the Greenlandic coastal areas, in the west and the east. It lasted until the total onset of the Thule culture , in AD ;1500. The people of the Dorset culture lived mainly by hunting whales and reindeer . From 986, the west coast was settled by Icelanders and Norwegians , through a contingent of 14 boats led by Erik the Red. They formed three settlements—the Eastern Settlement ,

#618381