Northeast Greenland National Park

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Northeast Greenland National Park

Northeast Greenland National Park is the largest national park

National park

A national park is a reserve of land, usually declared and owned by a national government, protected from most human development and pollution....
in the world, with an area of 972,000 square kilometres (375,000 square miles), making the park larger than 163 countries

List of countries and outlying territories by total area

This is a list of the Sovereignty of the world sorted by total area.For statistical purposes, dependent territories are listed separately from their sovereign state and are set off in italics....
. It is also the only national park in Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is a member country of the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago....
, and the most northerly national park in the world. The park encompasses the entire northeastern coastline and interior sections of Greenland.

park shares borders, largely laid out as straight lines

Great circle

A great circle of a sphere is a circle that runs along the surface of that sphere so as to cut it into two equal halves. The great circle therefore has both the same circumference and the same center as the sphere....
, with the Sermersooq

Sermersooq

File:Sermersooq-municipality-greenland.svgSermersooq is a new municipality in Greenland, operational from 1 January 2009. It is home to the capital of Greenland, Nuuk, and is the most populous municipality in Greenland....
municipality in the south and with the Qaasuitsup

Qaasuitsup

File:Qaasuitsup-municipality-greenland.svgQaasuitsup is a new municipality in Greenland, operational from 1 January 2009. It consists of the former municipalities of western and northern Greenland, each named after the biggest settlement....
municipality in the west along the 45° West

45th meridian west

The meridian 45? west of Prime Meridian is a line of longitude that extends from the North Pole across the Arctic Ocean, Greenland, the Atlantic Ocean, South America, the Southern Ocean, and Antarctica to the South Pole....
meridian

Meridian (geography)

A meridian is an imaginary arc on the Earth's surface from the North Pole to the South Pole that connects all locations running along it with a given longitude....
on the ice cap in the west.

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Encyclopedia

Northeast Greenland National Park is the largest national park

National park

List of countries and outlying territories by total area

Greenland

Geography

The park shares borders, largely laid out as straight lines

Great circle

Sermersooq

Qaasuitsup

45th meridian west

Meridian (geography)

A meridian is an imaginary arc on the Earth's surface from the North Pole to the South Pole that connects all locations running along it with a given longitude....
on the ice cap in the west. The large interior of the park is part of the Greenland Ice Sheet

Greenland ice sheet

The Greenland ice sheet is a vast body of ice covering 1.71 million km?, roughly 80% of the surface of Greenland. It is the second largest ice body in the World, after the Antarctic Ice Sheet....
, but there are large ice-free areas along the coast and in the north (Peary Land

Peary Land

Peary Land is a peninsula in northern Greenland, extending into the Arctic Ocean. It reaches from Victoria Fjord in the west to Independence Fjord in the south and southeast, and to the Arctic Ocean in the north, with Cape Morris Jesup, the northernmost point of Greenland's mainland, and Cape Bridgman in the northeast....
).

History

Originally created on 22 May 1974 from the northern, practically uninhabited part of the former Ittoqqortoormiit Municipality

Ittoqqortoormiit Municipality

Ittoqqortoormiit Municipality was one of the two municipalities of Tunu. Since 1 January 2009 it has been incorporated into the Sermersooq municipality....
in Tunu

Tunu

Tunu/?stgr?nland was one of the three counties of Greenland, until 31 December 2008. The county seat was at the main settlement, Tasiilaq....
(East Greenland), the park was expanded by another 272,000 km² to its present size in 1988, by including the northeastern part of the former county of Avannaa

Avannaa

Avannaa/Nordgr?nland was one of the three Administrative divisions of Greenland of Greenland, until 31 December 2008. The county seat was at the main settlement, Qaanaaq, the town of the only municipality....
(North Greenland). In January 1977 it was designated an international biosphere reserve. It is overseen by the Greenland Department of Environment and Nature.

The historical research camps on the ice sheet, Eismitte

Eismitte

Eismitte was the site of an Arctic expedition in the interior of Greenland that took place from July 1930 through August 1931, and claimed the life of noted Germany scientist Alfred Wegener....
and North Ice

North Ice

North Ice was the name of a research station of the British North Greenland Expedition on the inland ice of Greenland. The coordinates of the station were , with an altitude of 2 345 Metres above sea level....
, fall within the boundaries of the present-day park.

Population

The park has virtually no permanent human population. In 1986, the permanent population of the park was 40, living at Mesters Vig although 400 sites saw occasional summertime use. These 40 were involved in cleanup and closeout operations at mining exploration sites and soon left. Recently only 31 people and about 110 dogs were present over winter in North East Greenland, distributed among the following stations (all on the coast, except Summit Camp

Summit Camp

File:Summit-camp-station-greenland.svgSummit Camp, also Summit Station, is a year-round research station on the dome of the Greenland Ice Sheet....
):

Daneborg
Daneborg, Greenland

File:Daneborg-greenland.svgDaneborg is a station on the south coast of Wollaston Foreland peninsula of northeast Greenland, at the mouth of Young Sund emptying into Greenland Sea....
(12) headquarters of the Sirius Patrol, the park policing agency
Danmarkshavn
Danmarkshavn

File:Danmarkshavn-greenland.svgDanmarkshavn is a small weather station located in the Northeast Greenland National Park, in Greenland. The permanent population of the base is 8....
(8) civilian weather station
Station Nord
Nord, Greenland

File:Nord-greenland.svgStation Nord is a military and scientific base in northeastern Greenland lying 1700 km north of the Arctic Circle at 81?36'?N....
(5) military base
Mestersvig
Mestersvig

File:Mestersvig-greenland.svgMestersvig is a military outpost with a 1,800 m gravel runway located in in Scoresby Land, on the southern shore of the King Oscar Fjord in Northeast Greenland National Park....
(2) military outpost with 1,800 m gravel runway
Zackenberg
Zackenberg

File:Daneborg-greenland.svgZackenberg is an ecosystem research station and monitoring facility situated in the Northeast Greenland National Park in northeastern Greenland....
(0) summer-only research station
Summit Camp
Summit Camp

File:Summit-camp-station-greenland.svgSummit Camp, also Summit Station, is a year-round research station on the dome of the Greenland Ice Sheet....
(4) research station on the Greenland Ice Sheet
Greenland ice sheet

The Greenland ice sheet is a vast body of ice covering 1.71 million km?, roughly 80% of the surface of Greenland. It is the second largest ice body in the World, after the Antarctic Ice Sheet....

During summer scientists add to this. The research station ZERO (Zackenberg Ecological Research Operations) can cater for over 20 scientists and station personnel.

Fauna

An estimated 5,000 to 15,000 musk ox

Musk Ox

The muskox is an Arctic mammal of the Bovidae family, noted for its thick coat and for the strong odor emitted by males, from which its name derives....
as well as numerous polar bear

Polar Bear

The polar bear is a bear native to the Arctic Ocean and its surrounding seas. The world's largest carnivore found on land, and shares the title of largest land predator with the Kodiak Bear, an adult male weighs around , while an adult female is about half that size....
s and walrus

Walrus

The walrus is a large pinniped marine mammal with a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere....
can be found near the coastal regions of the park. This is claimed to be 40% of the world population of musk ox. Other mammals include arctic fox

Arctic fox

The Arctic Fox , also known as the White Fox or Snow Fox, is a small fox native to cold Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and is common throughout the Tundra#Arctic tundra biome....
, stoat

Stoat

The stoat is a small mammal of the family Mustelidae. In North America it is known as the ermine or short-tailed weasel; elsewhere, "ermine" refers to the animal only when it has white fur, which it moults to in winter in snowy parts of its range....
, reindeer

Reindeer

The reindeer , also known as the caribou when wild in North America, is an Arctic and Subarctic-dwelling deer, widespread and numerous across the northern Holarctic....
, collared lemming and arctic hare

Arctic Hare

The Arctic Hare is a hare which is largely adapted to polar and mountainous habitats. It was once considered a subspecies of the Mountain Hare, but it is now regarded as a separate species....
. Reindeer

Reindeer

Ringed Seal

The ringed seal , also known as the jar seal and as netsik or nattiq by the Inuit, is an earless seal inhabiting the northern coasts....
, bearded seal

Bearded Seal

The Bearded Seal , also called the Square Flipper Seal, is a medium-sized pinniped that is found in and near to the Arctic Ocean. It gets its Genus name from two Greek language words that refer to its heavy jaw....
, harp seal

Harp Seal

The Harp Seal is a species of Phocidae native to the northernmost Atlantic Ocean and adjacent parts of the Arctic Ocean....
and hooded seal

Hooded Seal

The Hooded Seal is an arctic pinniped found only in the central and western North Atlantic ranging from Svalbard in the east to the Gulf of St....
as well as narwhal

Narwhal

The narwhal is a medium-sized toothed whale that lives year-round in the Arctic. One of two species of whale in the Monodontidae family , along with the Beluga whale, the narwhal males are distinguished by a characteristic long, straight, helical tusk extending from their upper left jaw....
and white whale.

Species of birds which breed in the park include great northern diver

Great Northern Diver

The Great Northern Diver, known in North America as the Common Loon , is a large member of the loon, or diver, family of birds.Adults can range from 61–100 cm in length with a 122–152 cm wingspan, slightly smaller than the similar White-billed Diver or "Yellow-billed Loon"....
, barnacle goose

Barnacle Goose

The Barnacle Goose belongs to the genus Branta of black goose, which contains species with largely black plumage, distinguishing them from the grey Anser species....
, pink-footed goose

Pink-footed Goose

The Pink-footed Goose is a goose which breeds in eastern Greenland, Iceland and Svalbard. It is bird migration, wintering in northwest Europe, especially Great Britain, the Netherlands, and western Denmark....
, common eider

Common Eider

The Common Eider, Somateria mollissima, is a large Merginae, which is distributed over the northern coasts of Europe, North America and eastern Siberia....
, king eider

King Eider

The King Eider is a large Merginae, which breeds along northern hemisphere Arctic coasts of northeast Europe, North America and Asia. The birds spend most of the year in coastal marine ecosystems at high latitudes, and migrate to Arctic tundra to breed in June and July....
, gyrfalcon

Gyrfalcon

The gyrfalcon or , also spelled gerfalcon, is the largest of all falcon species. The Gyrfalcon breeds on Arctic coasts and islands of North America, Europe and Asia....
, snowy owl

Snowy Owl

The Snowy Owl is a large owl of the typical owl family Strigidae. The Snowy Owl was first classified in 1758 by Carolus Linnaeus, the Swedish naturalist who developed binomial nomenclature to classify and organize plants and animals....
, sanderling

Sanderling

The Sanderling is a small wader. It is a circumpolar Arctic breeder, and is a long-distance bird migration, wintering south to South America, South Europe, Africa, and Australia....
, ptarmigan

Ptarmigan

The Ptarmigan, Lagopus mutaThe word ptarmigan comes from the Scottish Gaelic language t?rmachan, which may be related to torm "murmur"....
and raven

Raven

Raven is the common name given to several larger-bodied members of the genus Corvus —but in Europe and North America the Common Raven is normally implied....
.

Northeast Greenland National Park

Geography

History

Population

Fauna

See also

External links