Geography of Greenland

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Outline Map of Greenland with ice sheet depths

Greenland, the largest island in the world, is located between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean, northeast of Canada and northwest of Iceland. Greenland has no land boundaries and 44,087 km of coastline.

The vegetation is generally sparse, with the only patch of forested land being found in Nanortalik Municipality in the extreme south near Cape Farewell.

The climate is arctic to subarctic with cool summers and cold winters. The terrain is mostly a flat but gradually sloping icecap that covers all land except for a narrow, mountainous, barren, rocky coast. The lowest point is at sea level, and the highest is Gunnbjørn (3,700 m). The northernmost point of Greenland proper is Cape Morris Jesup, discovered by Admiral Robert Peary in 1909. Natural resources include zinc, lead, iron ore, coal, molybdenum, gold, platinum, uranium, fish, seals, and whales.

Contents

1 Area
2 Land use
3 Irrigated land
4 Natural hazards
5 Environment - current issues
6 Geography - note
7 Climate change
8 Extreme points
9 External link

Area

total: 2,175,600 km²
land: 2,175,600 km² (341,700 km² ice-free, 1,833,900 km² ice-covered) (est.)

Maritime claims:
exclusive fishing zone: 200 nautical miles
territorial sea: 3 nautical miles

Land use

arable land: 0%
permanent crops: 0%
permanent pastures: 1%
forests and woodland: 0%
other: 99% (1993 est.)

Irrigated land

Natural hazards

Continuous ice sheet covers 84% of the country; the rest is permafrost. Image:Greenland.A2003233.1340.250m.jpg|The fractal coastline of eastern Greenland, with its many fjords. image:greenlandNASA.jpg|Detail of Greenland taken by NASA. image:Sermeqkujadtlek.jpg|Sermeq Kujatdlek Glacier at West Coast image:Eastcoastgreenland1.jpg|Nunatak mountains at East Coast Image:Isbjørn på Grønland.jpg|A polarbear on a typical landscape of the eastern coast.

Environment - current issues

Protection of the arctic environment; preservation of the Inuit traditional way of life, including whaling; note - Greenland participates actively in Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC).

Geography - note

Sparse population confined to small settlements along coast; world's second largest ice sheet.

Before the Pleistocene glaciation Greenland's geography was east and west coast mountains and between them a big low-lying center which drained west to the sea by one big river flowing out past where Disko is now.

Climate change

See also: Greenland ice sheet

The Greenland ice sheet is two miles thick and broad enough to blanket an area the size of Mexico. The ice is so massive that its weight presses the bedrock of Greenland below sea level, so all-concealing that not until recently did scientists discover that Greenland actually might be three islands.

There is concern about sea level rise caused by ice loss (melt and glaciers falling into the sea) on Greenland. Between 1997 and 2003 ice loss was 80±12 km³/yr, compared to about 60 km³/yr for 1993/4-1998/9. Half of the increase was from higher summer melting, with the rest caused by velocities of some glaciers exceeding those needed to balance upstream snow accumulation (Krabill et al., L24402, GRL 2004). A complete loss of ice on Greenland would cause a sea level rise of as much as 21 feet.

Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Kansas reported in February 2006 that the glaciers are melting twice as fast as they were five years ago. By 2005, Greenland was beginning to lose more ice volume than anyone expected — an annual loss of up to 52 cubic miles per year (216 km³/yr), according to more recent satellite gravity measurements released by JPL.

Between 1991 and 2006, monitoring of the weather at one location (Swiss Camp) found that the average winter temperature had risen almost 10 degrees fahrenheit.

Since 2002, Greenland's three largest outlet glaciers have started moving faster, satellite data show. On the eastern edge of Greenland, the Kangerlussuaq Glacier, like the Jakobshavn Isbræ, has surged, doubling its pace. To the west, the Helheim Glacier now appears to be moving about half a football field every day. The accelerating ice flow has been accompanied by a dramatic increase in seismic activity. In March 2006, researchers at Harvard University and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University reported that the glaciers now generate swarms of earthquakes up to magnitude 5.0

(Source: Los Angeles Times, June 25, 2006, ["Greenland's Ice Sheet Is Slip-Sliding Away"])

Although 216 cubic kilometres is a lot of ice, the melting of the Greenland Ice sheet currently contributes less that 1mm/year to annual global sea level rise, and at this rate the ice sheet will take thousands of years to melt. However, this could change rapidly in the future if the recently observed acceleration in the melt rate continues.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

Extreme points

This is a list of the extreme points of Greenland, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location.

Greenland (nation)

Northernmost Point — Kaffeklubben Island (83°40'N) - the northernmost permanent land in the world.
Southernmost Point — Cape Farewell, Egger Island (59°46'N)
Westernmost Point — Cape Alexander (73°08'W)
Easternmost Point — Nordostrundingen, Greenland (12°08'W)

Greenland (island)

Northernmost Point — Cape Morris Jesup (83°39'N)
Southernmost Point — Peninsula near Nanortalik
Westernmost Point — Cape Alexander (73°08'W)
Easternmost Point — Nordostrundingen, Greenland (12°08'W)

External link

[www.geus.dk] Geological map of Greenland from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland ( GEUS).

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