Bernstorff Fjord

Bernstorff Fjord
Kangertittivaq
Bernstorff Isfjord
Location
Location Arctic
Coordinates 63°42′N 41°10′W / 63.700°N 41.167°W / 63.700; -41.167Coordinates: 63°42′N 41°10′W / 63.700°N 41.167°W / 63.700; -41.167
Ocean/sea sources North Atlantic Ocean
Basin countries Greenland

Bernstorff Fjord (Danish: Bernstorff Isfjord; Greenlandic: Kangertittivaq)[1] is a fjord in King Frederick VI Coast, eastern Greenland.

Administratively it is part of the Sermersooq municipality. The fjord was named after Danish statesman Andreas Peter Bernstorff. This fjord is almost always blocked by heavy ice.[2]

Arctic explorer Wilhelm August Graah of the Danish Navy explored this area in 1828–30, during an expedition in search of the legendary Eastern Norse Settlement.[3]

Geography

To the east the Bernstorff Fjord opens into the North Atlantic Ocean. It separates the Odinland Peninsula to the north, from the Thorland Peninsula to the south of the fjord.[4] A single island, Ensomheden, is located within the fjord about 33 kilometres (21 miles) from its mouth.[5] There are two further islands —Igdluluarssuk and Sattiaatteq, which had had the northernmost Inuit settlements of the southern group on the east coast in the recent past[6]— at the entrance of the fjord on its southern side. Cape Mosting is the headland on the northern side.[2]

The glaciers at the inland end of this fjord, such as the Storebjorn Glacier, Bernstorff Glacier, Fimbul Glacier and the Sleipner Glacier, produce massive amounts of ice.[7] The constant glacier activity produces a powerful current streaming out of the fjord which, together with the numerous ice floes, makes navigation in the area between its mouth and Umivik Bay extremely difficult.

1944 map of the area around Skjoldungen.

See also

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ Den grønlandske Lods - Geodatastyrelsen
  2. 1 2 Prostar Sailing Directions 2005 Greenland and Iceland Enroute, p. 102
  3. ↑ Graah, W. A. (1832). Undersøgelses-Reise til Østkysten af Grønland, efter kongelig Befaling udført i Aarene 1828-31 [Exploration of the East Coast of Greenland, by royal order executed in the years 1828-31] (in Danish). Copenhagen.
  4. ↑ "Bernstorff Isfjord". Mapcarta. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
  5. ↑ "Ensomheden". Mapcarta. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
  6. ↑ Encyclopedia Arctica 15: Biographies - Gustav Frederick Holm
  7. ↑ Evidence for the asynchronous retreat of large outlet glaciers in southeast Greenland at the end of the last glaciation

External links

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