A land whiter than green: the ice sheet

Greenland, literally "green land", is 81% covered by an ice cap (the exact term is ice sheets). It covers 1 755 637 km² of land and extends north to south for 2 670 km, between Cape Morris Jesup (latitude 83° 39' N) and Cape Farvel (latitude 59° 46' N, the height of Oslo), and up to 1 060 km from east to west. In its middle, the ice is up to 3 km thick. The total volume of the ice sheet is as much as 2 million cubic km of ice, which represents 10% of the fresh water on the surface of the globe (the rest is almost entirely occupied by the Antarctic ice cap except for 2% for lakes and rivers), or the equivalent of a 6.5 m layer of water spread over all the seas of the globe. The highest point is Mount Gunnbjørn in the east, 3,733 metres high, while the centre of the cap dominates at 3,300 metres. The best known is Mount Forel (3,360 metres). He is named after the Swiss professor François-Alphonse Forel who, in 1912, organized a subscription to finance an expedition to Greenland. Another nearby mountain is named after Paul-Émile Victor, French explorer and ethnologist. Along the coasts and on the islands are the areas that are not covered by ice, i.e. 341,700 km², with a maximum width of 200 km, but the fjords, which penetrate them deeply, connect the ice sheet with the sea.

The southern part of the ice sheet is estimated to be between 2 and 3 million years old and has a dome 400 km wide and 600 km long, culminating at 2,760 m. The northern part of the ice sheet, older by 4 to 5 million years, has a dome 1,000 km wide and 1,700 km long. Due to the slow and unimpeded advance of the ice, seracs (irregularities on the surface of the glacier separated by crevasses) are not observable on the northern edges, where a wall several tens of meters high stands on layers of moraine. Although the ice cap shows signs of cold glaciation due to a negative temperature, lack of melting at the base and virtually no sub-glacial flow, significant melting is visible at the surface with a dense network of intense turquoise blue rivers called bédières. They cause the appearance of real sub-glacial basins, including the largest canyon in the world located under the ice sheet. In 2013, thanks to satellite observations, a team of scientists discovered the existence of a canyon at least 750 kilometres long and 800 metres deep in places, crossing the entire north-western part of the island. On average, the altitude of these basins varies between -250 m and +250 m, surrounded by mountainous borders which favoured and retained the accumulation of ice from the end of the Tertiary Era. Because of the weight of the ice, the earth's crust has sunk 800 metres; this phenomenon, called isostasy, would be reversed, like a plug held in the water and then released, when the cap melts.

Ice: icebergs and pack ice

Greenlandic, like the other Inuit languages, is used to describe different ice conditions with great accuracy. An iceberg is fresh water formed by the accumulation of snow over millennia on the ice cap, which gradually discharges by breaking up in the sea. The water of the iceberg is so pure that it is close to distilled water. Its colours, from white to green to blue, and its translucent appearance, offer a grandiose spectacle, although only one tenth of its volume has emerged. Arctic icebergs are often biscornuous in shape, while the larger Antarctic icebergs are tabular in shape.

The Ilulissat glacier is the most active glacier in the Northern Hemisphere: it advances at a speed of 25 to 30 metres per day and releases 8 billion tonnes of ice per year.A breathtaking spectacle to be admired from one's room at the Arctic Hotel or the Icefjord Hotel. Eqi's, several hours by boat, is also impressive with its calving visible from the cabins of Glacier Lodge Eqi. Another example is the Humboldt Glacier to the northwest, whose front is about 100 km wide. The resulting icebergs rarely exceed 70 metres in height, but the largest ever seen was 170 metres high! In 1912, it was one of them that the Titanic

hit. The smaller ones are called Burgundy icebergs, referring to the size of a barrel in Burgundy. Without being so gigantic, many icebergs are also generated in the Tasiilaq region in the east, in the south and finally in the northwest region towards Uummannaq.

The largest icebergs may drift for several years before reaching the Labrador and Newfoundland waters where, on contact with warmer water, they begin to melt. The International Ice Patrol keeps a close watch on the rare resistant icebergs, about 400 reported each year around 48°N latitude, to avoid accidents similar to the one on the Titanic. Since its creation in 1914, the patrol has recorded an average of two iceberg collisions per year, but no tragic accidents since the sinking of the Danish ship Hans Hedtoft

in 1959 with 95 people on board. Between 1831 and 1972, icebergs were observed almost everywhere in the North Atlantic: near Bermuda, in the Azores to off the coast of Ireland! Formed, unlike an iceberg, from salty sea water which freezes and covers the fjords in winter and early spring (generally between December and May), thus isolating many villages, the fast ice forms in the icy Arctic Ocean (not to be confused with permanent pack ice), drifts in patches after breaking up and slides along the east coast of Greenland. It then moves up the west coast. The pack ice can be up to several metres thick and the surface is fairly smooth, making it ideal for long dog-sled excursions. However, the melting of part of the pack ice has had dramatic consequences, including the endangerment of Arctic wildlife, especially polar bears.

Geology

The Greenlandic landscape is the result of the erosion of the Ice Age, but several places bear the traces of geological processes such as earthquakes, mountain range formations, volcanic activity... The island is built on one of the oldest rocky foundations in the world (Precambrian) and some of the rocks that make it up are among the oldest on the planet. It is therefore not surprising that Greenland is an Eldorado for those interested in geology. Greenland's relief is like a basin in which masses of ice lie, in places up to 3,500 metres thick, sometimes pushing the bedrock up to 350 metres below the ocean. This tremendous pressure prevents the ice from melting.

Greenland's astonishing peculiarity is that its geological history is visible to the naked eye. Some of the oldest rocks on the planet have been discovered on its west coast. The amitsoq gneiss at Nuuk is 3.75 billion years old and is believed to be the oldest rock discovered to date. In Narsaq, there are more than two hundred minerals within a very small area. The iron ore at Isua, on the west coast, is one of the oldest in the world. On the east coast, you can see the rocks as they were molten hundreds of millions of years ago.

Apart from amazing sights and rock formations, such as the ore intrusions that can be seen on the east coast on a boat tour with the tour operator Red House, or the basalt ramparts that geometrically stripe some of the islands in the Uummannaq area, its subsoil is a geologist's paradise. Lead, zinc, graphite, cryolite and molybdenum can be extracted from it. Numerous other samples have attested to the country's fabulous wealth, including coal reserves of over 100 million tons, uranium reserves estimated at 10,000 tons, iron deposits in quantity and quality, and rare earths such as zirconium, niobium, platinum, as well as garnets, moonstones, rubies... Unusual gemstones are used in jewellery, such as tuttupit, which is pink in colour, and a very rare type of sandstone that Queen Margrethe of Denmark wears in her jewellery. Sagalands in Qaqortoq offers excursions to find gemstones! Greenland also has oil under the sea off the west coast. These fabulous resources are carefully inventoried and mapped by the authorities who are expanding their mining operations year after year. A great controversy is going on at the moment (and splits the population) concerning the forthcoming opening of uranium mines in the south of the country.

The administrative division

Following the declaration of enhanced Greenland self-government, the administrative map of the country was changed. Previously, the territory was divided into 3 regions, which in turn were subdivided into 18 municipalities. There are now four municipalities to which two unincorporated areas (Thule Military Base in the north-west and Greenland National Park in the north-east) must be added. These 4 municipalities are named according to their geographical position: Kujalleq for the South, Qaasuitsup for the North (West), Qeqqata for the Centre-West and Sermersooq for the capital Nuuk (in addition to Paamiut and the few villages around Nuuk) and the East (but not including the National Park). The division in the tourist sense is different and simplified: the south coast, the west coast, the north-west coast and the east coast.