Qeqertarsuaq
Encyclopedia
Qeqertarsuaq is a port
Port
A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....

 and a town in Qaasuitsup
Qaasuitsup
Qaasuitsup is a new municipality in Greenland, operational from 1 January 2009. As of January 2010 its population is 17,749. The administrative center of the municipality is in Ilulissat...

 municipality, located on the south coast of Qeqertarsuaq (Disko) Island
Disko Island
Disko Island is a large island in Baffin Bay, off the west coast of Greenland. It has an area of , making it the second largest island of Greenland and one of the 100 largest islands in the world...

, an island on the west coast of Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located 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...

. Founded in 1773, it is home to a campus of the University of Copenhagen
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...

. Qeqertarsuaq is Greenlandic for: 'Large Island.' It is also the name of several other islands on Greenland in the same municipality, namely Qeqertarsuaq (Upernavik)
Qeqertarsuaq (Upernavik)
Qeqertarsuaq is an island in Qaasuitsup municipality, near Upernavik, in northwestern Greenland.Qeqertarsuaq is the name of several islands in Greenland...

, or Qeqertarsuaq (Herbert Island)
Qeqertarsuaq (Herbert Island)
Qeqertarsuaq is an island near Qaanaaq in the Qaasuitsup municipality. This is also the name of an abandoned fishing village on the island. The island has an area of 223 km2....

.

Geography

The total area of Disko Island
Disko Island
Disko Island is a large island in Baffin Bay, off the west coast of Greenland. It has an area of , making it the second largest island of Greenland and one of the 100 largest islands in the world...

 and its satellite islands (mainly Qeqertarsuatsiaq Island
Qeqertarsuatsiaq Island
Qeqertarsuatsiaq Island is an isolated and uninhabited island in the Qaasuitsup municipality, in Baffin Bay off the western shore of Greenland.- Geography :...

 11 km (7 mi) northwest of off the northern coast, and Qeqertaq
Qeqertaq
Qeqertaq is a settlement in the Qaasuitsup municipality in western Greenland, located on an island off the southern shore of the Nuussuaq Peninsula, in an inlet of Sullorsuaq Strait...

 on the southwest coast, at the mouth of Disko Fjord) - is 9700 km² (3,745.2 sq mi). In 2010, the town had 907 inhabitants. The remainder of the population of the island lives in the Kangerluk
Kangerluk
Kangerluk is a settlement in the Qaasuitsup municipality, in western Greenland, located on the southwestern shore of Disko Island. It had 33 inhabitants in 2010.- Population :...

 settlement.

History

The town of Qeqertarsuaq was founded by whaler Svend Sandgreen in 1773.
Whaling has been of great importance to the town over the past two centuries. Hunting and fishing are still the primary occupations for the island's inhabitants. Around 1,000 of these inhabitants live in the main town and more than 50 in the Kangerluk settlement, a few hours by boat to the north-west. This is where researchers found a 'galloping' glacier in 1999 that moves up to 100 metres (328.1 ft) a day.

Traces of settling between five to six thousand years ago have been found at Qeqertarsuaq. The settlers were paleo-Eskimos wandering south.

The first whalers came to Qeqertarsuaq during the 18th century; here they found a suitable anchoring place, which became the basis of the colony.

In 1773, the colony of Godhavn (the Good Port) was established, serving as the most northern point in the enforcement of the Danish rights to whaling in the region.

In 1862, a new law on municipalities was passed and the so-called Directions were introduced in Greenland. The primary task of the Direction was the administration of the means set apart for social purposes: support for widows, children unprovided for and others in need. The Direction also functioned as an inferior court in case of, for instance, theft. The Direction also took active part in the fight against the spreading of distemper, in the founding of a kayak
Kayak
A kayak is a small, relatively narrow, human-powered boat primarily designed to be manually propelled by means of a double blade paddle.The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each seating one paddler...

 school for boys and a sewing school for girls.

The Councils of Northern and Southern Greenland were summoned to a meeting in Godhavn on the 3rd of May, 1940. One of the consequences of the meeting is the fact that all the administration of Greenland, until then divided between Godhavn and Godthåb, now was concentrated in Godthåb so that the era of Godhavn being the governmental seat of Northern Greenland was over. The Chief Administrative Office was abolished in 1950 at the establishment of the National Council of Greenland. This also was the beginning of the development of Qeqertarsuaq into a ’normal’ society based on hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...

 and fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

 and into the modern town of today.

On 1 January 2009, the old Qeqertarsuaq municipality was merged with several other municipalities of western and northern Greenland into the new Qaasuitsup
Qaasuitsup
Qaasuitsup is a new municipality in Greenland, operational from 1 January 2009. As of January 2010 its population is 17,749. The administrative center of the municipality is in Ilulissat...

 municipality.

Tourism

Many of the flat basalt
Basalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...

ic mountain
Mountain
Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...

s found all over the island are covered with perpetual snow. The greatest area is called Sermersuaq (The Grand Glacier). Sermersuaq is situated rather far from the coast
Coast
A coastline or seashore is the area where land meets the sea or ocean. A precise line that can be called a coastline cannot be determined due to the dynamic nature of tides. The term "coastal zone" can be used instead, which is a spatial zone where interaction of the sea and land processes occurs...

 which is why it is difficult to reach in summer. Lyngmarksbræen (The Lyngmark Glacier) is a lot smaller than Sermersuaq, but is close to town and can be reached on a few hours’ walk. The glacier covers almost 10 km.

As something quite unique in Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located 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...

, it is possible to ride a dog sled
Dog sled
A dog sled is a sled pulled by one or more sled dogs used to travel over ice and through snow. Numerous types of sleds are used, depending on their function. They can be used for dog sled racing.-History:...

 at Qeqertarsuaq under the midnight sun in summer. It takes place on the inland ice at a height of around 700 m (2,296.6 ft) in the Lyngmarksfjeld behind the town. One can wander to the top of the Lyngmarksfjeld where efforts are rewarded by a fantastic view of Disko Bay and the gigantic icebergs at Ilulissat
Ilulissat
Ilulissat is a town in the Qaasuitsup municipality in western Greenland, located approximately north of the Arctic Circle. With the population of 4,546 as of 2010, it is the third-largest settlement in Greenland, after Nuuk and Sisimiut....

 almost 100 kilometres (62 mi) away.

Transport

During winter Air Greenland
Air Greenland
Air Greenland A/S is the flag carrier airline of Greenland, jointly owned by the government of Greenland, the SAS Group, and the government of Denmark...

 operates winter-only air services from Qeqertarsuaq Heliport
Qeqertarsuaq Heliport
Qeqertarsuaq Heliport is a heliport on the southern shore of Qeqertarsuaq Island in the Qaasuitsup municipality, in western Greenland. It is located in Qeqertarsuaq, the biggest town on, and named after, the island.-Airlines and destinations:...

 to Ilulissat
Ilulissat
Ilulissat is a town in the Qaasuitsup municipality in western Greenland, located approximately north of the Arctic Circle. With the population of 4,546 as of 2010, it is the third-largest settlement in Greenland, after Nuuk and Sisimiut....

, Qasigiannguit
Qasigiannguit
Qasigiannguit is a town located on the southeastern shore of Disko Bay, in the Qaasuitsup municipality in western Greenland. With 1,253 inhabitants as of 2010, it is the twelfth-largest town in Greenland. The main industry is shrimp and halibut fishing....

, and Aasiaat
Aasiaat
Aasiaat 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 3,005 as of 2010, it is Greenland's fifth-largest town.-Etymology:...

.

During summer and autumn, when the waters of Disko Bay are navigable, communication between settlements is by sea only, serviced by Diskoline
Diskoline
Disko Line A/S is a passenger and freight ferry line in western Greenland. It was founded in 2004 as a small freight company.- Complementary transport services :...

. The ferry links Qeqertarsuaq with Ilulissat, Aasiaat, Qasigiannguit, and Kitsissuarsuit
Kitsissuarsuit
Kitsissuarsuit is a settlement in the Qaasuitsup municipality, in western Greenland. The settlement was founded in 1830, although until 1817 the island was used as a whaling station...

.

Notable current/former residents

  • Rasmus Lerdorf
    Rasmus Lerdorf
    Rasmus Lerdorf is a Danish programmer with Canadian citizenship and is most notable as the creator of the PHP scripting language. He authored the first two versions...

     − creator of the computer programming language PHP
    PHP
    PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...

    , which is used by MediaWiki
    MediaWiki
    MediaWiki is a popular free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, it is used to run all of its projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wikis around the world also use it to power their websites...

    to generate the page you are reading now.

Population

With 907 inhabitants as of 2010, Qeqertarsuaq is the smallest town in the Qaasuitsup municipality. The population has decreased by 17 percent relative to the 1990 levels, and by nearly 9 percent relative to the 2000 levels, decreasing over the course of the last several years.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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