1.
Disko Bay
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Disko Bay is a bay on the western coast of Greenland. The bay constitutes a wide southeastern inlet of Baffin Bay, to the south the coastline is complicated with multiple waterways of skerries and small islands in the Aasiaat archipelago. Qasigiannguit and Ilimanaq are the settlements in the southeastern inlet. From the north the bay is bounded by Qeqertarsuaq, the largest island on the western coast, North of Ilulissat and west of Aluttoq Island the bay transforms into Sullorsuaq Strait separating Qeqertarsuaq from Nuussuaq Peninsula. Disko Bay has been an important location for centuries and its coastline was first encountered by Europeans when Erik the Red started a settlement in 985 AD on the more habitable western coast of Greenland. The two settlements, called the Eastern and Western settlements, were sustenance economies that survived on animal husbandry, soon after the Western settlement was established, the Norsemen traveled up the coast during the summer thaw and discovered Disko Bay. Their interest in this bay was due to its resources, walruses for ivory, seals for their pelts. These products became the source of income for the Greenlandic settlers who traded with Iceland, the British Isles. Without these resources the settlements would not have lasted as long as they did. It is uncertain when the Inuit first started venturing into Disko Bay, Norse accounts document an eventual trade arrangement with the Inuit who came from the north and west. For a time, both parties made use of the bay. Later accounts report fighting and massacres on both sides, however, the primary reason for the abandonment of the Greenlandic settlements was the advent of the Little Ice Age that started in the 15th century. There was such a shift in temperature that Disko Bay became inaccessible even in the warmer summer months. Even the Eastern settlement, which was below the Arctic Circle, Disko Troop, a central character in Rudyard Kiplings novel Captains Courageous, was born on a fishing boat in the vicinity of Disko Bay and subsequently named after it. Brown, Berit ed. Nordic Experiences, Exploration of Scandinavian Cultures, the Encyclopedia of the Viking Age. Westard to Vinland, The Discovery of Pre-Columbian Norse House-sites in North America, www. disko. gl Site with information and interactive maps of the Disko Bay area
2.
Denmark
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The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union was ratified, legal matters in The Danish Realm are subject to the Danish Constitution. Beginning in 1953, state law issues within The Danish Realm has been governed by The Unity of the Realm, a less formal name for The Unity of the Realm is the Commonwealth of the Realm. In 1978, The Unity of The Realm was for the first time referred to as rigsfællesskabet. The name caught on and since the 1990s, both The Unity of The Realm and The Danish Realm itself has increasingly been referred to as simply rigsfællesskabet in daily parlance. The Danish Constitution stipulates that the foreign and security interests for all parts of the Danish Realm are the responsibility of the Danish government, the Faroes received home rule in 1948 and Greenland did so in 1979. In 2005, the Faroes received a self-government arrangement, and in 2009 Greenland received self rule, the Danish Realms unique state of internal affairs is acted out in the principle of The Unity of the Realm. This principle is derived from Article 1 of the Danish Constitution which specifies that constitutional law applies equally to all areas of the Danish Realm, the Constitutional Act specifies that sovereignty is to continue to be exclusively with the authorities of the Realm. The language of Denmark is Danish, and the Danish state authorities are based in Denmark, the Kingdom of Denmarks parliament, with its 179 members, is located in the capital, Copenhagen. Two of the members are elected in each of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government ministries are located in Copenhagen, as is the highest court, in principle, the Danish Realm constitutes a unified sovereign state, with equal status between its constituent parts. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority ultimately reside in central government. The Self-Government Arrangements devolves political competence and responsibility from the Danish political authorities to the Faroese, the Faroese and Greenlandic authorities administer the tasks taken over from the state, enact legislation in these specific fields and have the economic responsibility for solving these tasks. The Danish government provides a grant to the Faroese and the Greenlandic authorities to cover the costs of these devolved areas. The 1948 Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands sets out the terms of Faroese home rule, the Act states. the Faroe Islands shall constitute a self-governing community within the State of Denmark. It establishes the government of the Faroe Islands and the Faroese parliament. The Faroe Islands were previously administered as a Danish county, the Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand and these powers were expanded in a 2005 Act, which named the Faroese home government as an equal partner with the Danish government
3.
Greenland
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Greenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Danish Realm between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for more than a millennium. The majority of its residents are Inuit, whose ancestors began migrating from the Canadian mainland in the 13th century, Greenland is the worlds largest island. Three-quarters of Greenland is covered by the permanent ice sheet outside Antarctica. With a population of about 56,480, it is the least densely populated country in the world, the Arctic Umiaq Line ferry acts as a lifeline for western Greenland, connecting the various cities and settlements. Greenland has been inhabited off and on for at least the last 4,500 years by Arctic peoples whose forebears migrated there from what is now Canada, Norsemen settled the uninhabited southern part of Greenland beginning in the 10th century, and Inuit peoples arrived in the 13th century. The Norse colonies disappeared in the late 15th century, soon after their demise, beginning in 1499, the Portuguese briefly explored and claimed the island, naming it Terra do Lavrador. In the early 18th century, Scandinavian explorers reached Greenland again, to strengthen trading and power, Denmark-Norway affirmed sovereignty over the island. Greenland was settled by Vikings more than a thousand years ago, Vikings set sail from Greenland and Iceland, discovering North America nearly 500 years before Columbus reached Caribbean islands. Though under continuous influence of Norway and Norwegians, Greenland was not formally under the Norwegian crown until 1262, the Kingdom of Norway was extensive and a military power until the mid-14th century. Thus, the two kingdoms resources were directed at creating Copenhagen, Norway became the weaker part and lost sovereignty over Greenland in 1814 when the union was dissolved. Greenland became a Danish colony in 1814, and was made a part of the Danish Realm in 1953 under the Constitution of Denmark, in 1973, Greenland joined the European Economic Community with Denmark. However, in a referendum in 1982, a majority of the population voted for Greenland to withdraw from the EEC which was effected in 1985, Greenland contains the worlds largest and most northernly national park, Northeast Greenland National Park. Greenland is divided into four municipalities - Sermersooq, Kujalleq, Qaasuitsup and it also retains control of monetary policy, providing an initial annual subsidy of DKK3.4 billion, which is planned to diminish gradually over time. Greenland expects to grow its economy based on increased income from the extraction of natural resources, the capital, Nuuk, held the 2016 Arctic Winter Games. At 70%, Greenland has one of the highest shares of renewable energy in the world, the early Viking settlers named the island as Greenland. In the Icelandic sagas, the Norwegian-born Icelander Erik the Red was said to be exiled from Iceland for manslaughter, along with his extended family and his thralls, he set out in ships to explore an icy land known to lie to the northwest. After finding an area and settling there, he named it Grœnland
4.
Greenland ice sheet
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The Greenland ice sheet is a vast body of ice covering 1,710,000 square kilometres, roughly 80% of the surface of Greenland. It is the second largest ice body in the world, after the Antarctic ice sheet, the ice sheet is almost 2,400 kilometres long in a north-south direction, and its greatest width is 1,100 kilometres at a latitude of 77°N, near its northern margin. The mean altitude of the ice is 2,135 metres, the thickness is generally more than 2 km and over 3 km at its thickest point. It is not the only ice mass of Greenland – isolated glaciers, if the entire 2,850,000 cubic kilometres of ice were to melt, it would lead to a global sea level rise of 7.2 m. The Greenland Ice Sheet is sometimes referred to under the term inland ice, or its Danish equivalent and it is also sometimes referred to as an ice cap. From about 11 million years ago to 10 million years ago, the Greenland Ice Sheet formed in the middle Miocene by coalescence of ice caps and glaciers. There was an intensification of glaciation during the Late Pliocene, Ice sheet formation occurred in connection to uplift of the West Greenland and East Greenland uplands. The Western and Easter Greenland mountains constitute passive continental margins that were uplifted in two phases,10 and 5 million years ago, in the Miocene epoch, computer modelling shows that the uplift would have enabled glaciation by producing increased orographic precipitation and cooling the surface temperatures. The oldest known ice in the current ice sheet is as old as 110,000 years, if the ice suddenly disappeared, Greenland would most probably appear as an archipelago, at least until isostasy lifted the land surface above sea level once again. The ice surface reaches its greatest altitude on two elongated domes, or ridges. The southern dome reaches almost 3,000 metres at latitudes 63°–65°N, the crests of both domes are displaced east of the centre line of Greenland. The unconfined ice sheet does not reach the sea along a broad front anywhere in Greenland, the ice margin just reaches the sea, however, in a region of irregular topography in the area of Melville Bay southeast of Thule. The best known of these outlet glaciers is Jakobshavn Glacier, which, at its terminus, on the ice sheet, temperatures are generally substantially lower than elsewhere in Greenland. The lowest mean annual temperatures, about −31 °C, occur on the part of the north dome. During winter, the ice sheet takes on a clear blue/green color, during summer, the top layer of ice melts leaving pockets of air in the ice that makes it look white. The ice sheet, consisting of layers of compressed snow from more than 100,000 years, in the past decades, scientists have drilled ice cores up to 4 kilometres deep. This variety of climatic proxies is greater than in any other natural recorder of climate, many scientists who study the ice melt in Greenland consider that a two or three °C temperature rise would result in a complete melting of Greenland’s ice. Positioned in the Arctic, the Greenland ice sheet is especially vulnerable to climate change, Arctic climate is believed to be now rapidly warming and much larger Arctic shrinkage changes are projected
5.
Baffin Bay
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Baffin Bay, located between Baffin Island and the southwest coast of Greenland, is a marginal sea of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is connected to the Atlantic via Davis Strait and the Labrador Sea, the narrower Nares Strait connects Baffin Bay with the Arctic Ocean. The bay is not navigable most of the year because of the ice cover and high density of floating ice, however, a polynya of about 80,000 km2, known as the North Water, opens in summer on the north near Smith Sound. Most of the life of the bay is concentrated near that region. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of Baffin Bay as follows, a line from Cape Sheridan, Grant Land to Cape Bryant, Greenland. The parallel of 70° North between Greenland and Baffin Land, the Eastern limits of the North-West Passages. The area of the bay has been inhabited since c. 500 BC, around AD1200, the initial Dorset settlers were replaced by the Thule peoples. Recent excavations also suggest that the Norse colonization of the Americas reached the shores of Baffin Bay sometime between the 10th and 14th centuries, the English explorer John Davis was the first recorded European to enter the bay, arriving in 1585. In 1612, a group of English merchants formed the Company of Merchants of London and their governor Thomas Smythe organized five expeditions to explore the northern coasts of Canada in search of a maritime passage to the Far East. Henry Hudson and Thomas Buttons explored Hudson Bay, William Gibbons Labrador, and Robert Bylot Hudson Strait, aboard the Discovery, Baffin charted the area and named Lancaster, Smith, and Jones Sounds after members of his company. By the completion of his 1616 voyage, Baffin held out no hope of an ice-free passage, over time, his account came to be doubted until it was confirmed by John Rosss 1818 voyage. More advanced scientific studies followed in 1928, in the 1930s and after World War II by Danish, currently, there are a few Inuit settlements on the Canadian coast of the bay, including Arctic Bay, Pond Inlet and Clyde River. Those settlements are accessed and supplied by air and annual sealifts, in 1975, a town was built at Nanisivik to support lead and zinc production at the Nanisivik Mine—the first Canadian mine in the Arctic. The mine was closed in 2002 due to declining resources and metal prices, whereas the town still has a functional seaport and an airport, as of the 2006 census, it has an official population of zero. Baffin Bay was the epicenter of a 7.3 magnitude earthquake in 1933 and this is the largest known earthquake north of the Arctic Circle. It caused no damage because of its location and the small number of the nearby onshore communities. The northwestern part of the bay remains one of the most seismically active regions in eastern Canada, five earthquakes of magnitude 6 have occurred here since 1933. The latest strong earthquake occurred on 15 April 2010 and had the magnitude of 5.1, Baffin Bay is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean bounded by the Baffin Island in the west, Greenland in the east, and Ellesmere Island in the north
6.
Nuussuaq Peninsula
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Nuussuaq Peninsula is a large peninsula in western Greenland. The waters around the peninsula are that of Baffin Bay, to the south and southwest the peninsula is bounded by Disko Bay, an inlet of Baffin Bay. It is separated from Qeqertarsuaq Island by Sullorsuaq Strait which connects Disko Bay with Baffin Bay, to the northeast, it is bounded by the Uummannaq Fjord system. The peninsula is mountainous, with the highest summit reaching 2,144 m, the two arms are dissected by a deep Kuussuaq Valley, partially filled in the center with Sarqap Tassersuaq, a glacial, emerald lake. The worlds largest fossil mollusk, Inoceramus steenstrup, was found in 1952 in Qilakitsoq Valley on the Nuussuaq peninsula, the peninsula is administered as part of the Qaasuitsup municipality. Volcanic development in the Nuussuaq Basin, West Greenland
7.
Thule Air Base
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Thule Air Base is the US Armed Forces northernmost installation, located 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Thules arctic environment includes icebergs in North Star Bay, two islands a polar ice sheet, and Wolstenholme Fjord — the only place on Earth where four active glaciers join together. Thule Air Base is also home to the 821st Air Base Group and is responsible for air support within the Thule Defense Area for the multinational population of Team Thule. The base hosts the 12th Space Warning Squadron which operates a Ballistic Missile Early Warning System designed to detect, Thule is also host to Detachment 1 of the 23rd Space Operations Squadron, part of the 50th Space Wings global satellite control network. The airfields 10, 000-foot runway handles more than 3,000 US, finally, Thule is home to the northernmost deep water port in the world. Thule is the only Air Force Base with an assigned tugboat, the tugboat is used to assist ship movements in the harbor during the summer, and is hauled onto shore during the winter season. The tugboat is used for daily sightseeing tours of Northstar Bay during the summer. Additionally, for a fee, there is a Danish tour boat that runs in the summer and it also was essential in the construction and resupply of High Arctic weather stations, including CFS Alert and Station Nord. In 1818, Sir John Ross’s expedition made first contact with nomadic Polar Eskimos in the area, james Saunderss expedition aboard North Star was marooned in North Star Bay 1849–50 and named landmarks. Robert Peary built a station by a protected harbor at the foot of iconic Mount Dundas in 1892. It served as a camp for his expeditions and attracted a permanent population. In 1910 explorer Knud Rasmussen established a missionary and trading post there and he called the site “Thule” after classical Ultima Thule, the Inuit called it Umanaq, and the site is commonly called Dundas today. The United States abandoned its claims in the area in 1917 in connection with the purchase of the Virgin Islands. Denmark assumed control of the village in 1937, a cluster of huts known as Pituffik stood on the wide plain where the base was built in 1951. The affected locals moved to Thule. ”In a Danish Supreme Court judgment of 28 November 2003 the move was considered an expropriative intervention and it was during the proceedings recognized by the Danish government that the movement was a serious interference and an unlawful act against the local population. The Thule tribe was awarded damages of 500,000 kroner, a Danish radio station continued to operate at Dundas, and the abandoned houses remained. The USAF only used that site for about a decade, Knud Rasmussen was the first to recognize the Pituffik plain as ideal for an airport. USAAF Colonel Bernt Balchen, who built Sondrestrom Air Base, knew Rasmussen, Balchen led a flight of two Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boats to Thule on 24 August 1942 and then sent a report advocating an air base to USAAF chief Henry Hap Arnold
8.
Qeqertarsuaq
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Greenlandic, Qeqertarsuaq is a port and town in Qaasuitsup municipality, located on the south coast of Disko Island on the west coast of Greenland. Founded in 1773, the town is now home to a campus of the University of Copenhagen known as Arctic Station. Qeqertarsuaq is the Kalaallisut name for Disko Island and is now used for several other islands on Greenland in Qaasuitsup, including those formerly known as Upernavik. In 2013, the town had 845 inhabitants, the remainder of the population of the island lives in the Kangerluk settlement, a few hours by boat to the northwest. The total area of Disko Island and its islands is 9,700 km2. Blæsedalen valley is to the north of the town, Kangerluk is the location where researchers found a galloping glacier in 1999 that moves up to 100 meters a day. Traces of settlement between five and six years ago have been found at Qeqertarsuaq. The settlers were paleo-Eskimos wandering south, during the 18th century, the first whalers came to Qeqertarsuaq, where they found a suitable anchorage. The town was founded as Godhavn by the whaler Svend Sandgreen in 1773, the name was sometimes anglicized as Guthaven and the settlement was also known as Lievely or Leifly. It served as the northernmost point in the enforcement of the Danish rights to whaling in the region, whaling has been of great importance to the town over the past two centuries. Hunting and fishing are still the primary occupations for the islands inhabitants, from an early date, Godhavn shared the administration of Greenland with Godthåb. Godhavn served as the capital for North Greenland while Godthåb directed South Greenland, in 1862, a new law on municipalities was passed and the so-called Directions were introduced in Greenland. The primary task of the Directions was the administration of the set apart for social purposes, support for widows, orphans. The Directions also functioned as courts in case of theft. The Directions also took part in the fight against the spreading of distemper. In Godhavn, they founded a school for boys and a sewing school for girls. The Councils of Northern and Southern Greenland were summoned to a meeting in Godhavn on 3 May 1940, following this meeting, administration for the entire island was concentrated in Godthåb. The Chief Administrative Office was abolished in 1950 at the establishment of the National Council of Greenland, with the end of government positions in town, the local economy focused more directly on hunting and fishing
9.
Northeast Greenland National Park
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Northeast Greenland National Park is the worlds largest and most northerly national park. It is the largest protected area in the world. It was the first national park to be created in the Kingdom of Denmark, the large interior of the park is part of the Greenland Ice Sheet, but there are also large ice-free areas along the coast and on Peary Land in the north. Besides Peary land, the park includes the King Frederick VIII Land, the area is subject to larger loss of ice than expected. In January 1977 it was designated a biosphere reserve. The park is overseen by the Greenland Department of Environment and Nature, the historical research camps on the ice sheet−Eismitte and North Ice−fall within the boundaries of the present-day park. The park has no permanent human population, in 1986, the permanent population of the park was 40, living at Mestersvig, although 400 sites saw occasional summertime use. These 40 were involved in cleanup and closeout operations at mining exploration sites, since then censuses have recorded zero permanent human population. The research station ZERO 74°28′11″N 20°34′15″W can cater for over 20 scientists, an estimated 5,000 to 15,000 musk oxen, as well as numerous polar bears and walrus, can be found near the coastal regions of the park. This is claimed to be 40% of the population of musk ox. Other mammals include Arctic fox, stoat, collared lemming and Arctic hare, other marine mammals include ringed seal, bearded seal, harp seal and hooded seal as well as narwhal and Beluga whale. Species of birds breed in the park include great northern diver, barnacle goose, pink-footed goose, common eider, king eider, gyrfalcon, snowy owl, sanderling, ptarmigan
10.
Sermersooq
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Sermersooq is a new municipality in Greenland, operational from 1 January 2009. It is home to Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, and is the most populous municipality in the country and it is the second largest municipality in the world by area, after Qaasuitsup. In the south, it is flanked by the Kujalleq municipality, in the northwest, the municipality is bordered by the Qeqqata municipality, and further north by the Qaasuitsup municipality. The latter border however runs north-south through the center of the Greenland ice sheet −, in the north the municipality is bordered by the Northeast Greenland National Park. In the east, near the settlement of Ittoqqortoormiit, the municipal shores straddle the Kangertittivaq fjord, the southeastern shores are bordered by the Anorituup Kangerlua fjord of the Irminger Sea in the North Atlantic Ocean. There are also flights between Nuuk and Paamiut Airport on the west coast. Kalaallisut, the West Greenlandic dialect is spoken in the towns, danish is also in use in the bigger towns. Tunumiit oraasiat, the East Greenlandic dialect, is spoken on the eastern coast
11.
Aasiaat
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Aasiaat or Ausiait, formerly Egedesminde, is a town in the Qaasuitsup municipality in western Greenland, located in the heart of Aasiaat Archipelago at the southern end of Disko Bay. With a population of 3,102 as of 2014, it is Greenlands fifth-largest town, the exact explanation for this is yet to be determined because of the lack of historical facts of the origin of the name. The most common assumption is that when the town was founded as a mere settlement, like in the rest of Greenland, spiders are rarely seen in the town in modern times. Aasiaat is sometimes referred to as the Town of the Whales, since marine mammals such as whales, archaeological projects in the region have suggested human habitation in the region that includes Aasiaat as far back as the 5th millennium BC. The earliest modern settlers dated to around 1200, these were probably subsistence hunters and these inhabitants hunted harp seals and capelin near Sydøst Bay in the spring. In the summer, they moved to Nassuttooq for reindeer and halibut, during autumn, the people of Disko Bay returned home to hunt small harp seals. In the winter, the bay froze over, and they hunted narwhals and these early people designed and built their own kayaks and umiaks when the water freed up, in the winter, they used dogsleds. The settlement that would become Aasiaat was founded in 1759 by Niels Egede, son of Hans Egede, named Egedesminde Colony after him, it was located north of Nordre Strømfjord, and was 125 km south of Aasiaats current location. The town was moved to its current site in 1763, most villagers were whalers, and the smallpox germs they carried to the region ravaged the native population, especially during the 1770s. Aasiaat saw much growth in the first half of the 20th century, on May 3,1940, a treaty signed in Godhavn allowed American relief airplanes bound for the British Isles to use Greenlandic, Icelandic, and Scottish airspace. A result of World War II was the fact that Denmark, under the control of Nazi Germany, could not freely send supplies to Greenland, supplies were stored near Aasiaat, and were then transferred to other towns of the region, such as Uummannaq and Sisimiut. Aasiaat has grown much since the war, a weather station was constructed in 1942 by the Americans. Cod, a popular fish since the 1930s, were caught. Other businesses sprang up, accommodating to the resources and climate of the region and this boom reached its peak in the 1950s, when a power plant and telecommunications station were installed. In 1998, a new landing strip was opened to the public, today, almost 4,800 people live in Aasiaat and its neighboring settlement, Kangaatsiaq. The largest island of the Aasiaat Archipelago is Saqqarliup Nunaa, which is uninhabited, on the western tip of the island is the abandoned village of Manermiut. As of 2013 the total population of the archipelago is spread among three settlements, The town of Aasiaat, is located on the island just northwest of Saqqarliup Nunaa. The settlement of Akunnaaq is located on the island just northeast of Saqqarliup Nunaa,23 km east-north-east of Aasiaat
12.
Qasigiannguit
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Qasigiannguit, formerly Christianshåb, is a town located in western Greenland on the southeastern shore of Disko Bay in the Qaasuitsup municipality. With 1,171 inhabitants in 2013, it is the thirteenth-largest town in Greenland, the main industry is shrimp and halibut fishing. The settlement was founded as a trading post for Jacob Severins company in 1734, the name was sometimes anglicized as Christians Hope. Paul Egedes former residence is Greenlands oldest surviving wooden building and it was completed on 25 July 1734 and moved to its present site in 1806 owing to the heavy wind at its original location across the bay. In 1997, a museum was opened in the Egede house. In the summer of 1999, an archaeological discovery provided the museum with a collection of finds from different prehistoric cultures, during the winter, Air Greenland operates air services from the town heliport to Ilulissat, Qeqertarsuaq on Disko Island and Aasiaat. During summer and autumn, when the waters of Disko Bay are navigable, the ferry links Qasigiannguit with Ilulissat, Aasiaat, Ikamiut, Akunnaaq, and Qeqertarsuaq. With 1,171 inhabitants as of 2013, Qasigiannguit is the fourth-largest town in the Qaasuitsup municipality, the town is steadily depopulating, with the population having decreased by more than 27% relative to the 1990 levels and by nearly 17% relative to the 2000 levels
Kingdom of Denmark
Greenland
Qeqertalik
