Wolstenholme Fjord

Wolstenholme Fjord
Uummannap Kangerlua (Greenlandic)
Wolstenholme Fjord Location in Greenland
Location	Arctic
Coordinates	76°37′55″N68°38′15″W / 76.63194°N 68.63750°W / 76.63194; -68.63750
Ocean/sea sources	Baffin Bay
Basin  countries	Greenland

Wolstenholme Fjord (Greenlandic : Uummannap Kangerlua) ^[1] is a fjord in Avannaata municipality, Northwest Greenland. The United States' Pituffik Space Base and the abandoned Inuit settlement of Narsaarsuk are on the coast of the fjord.

The area was contaminated in 1968 with plutonium and other radioactive elements following a B-52 bomber crash. ^[2]

Geography

Wolstenholme Fjord is located in the stretch of coast between Cape York and Cape Alexander. Together with the Inglefield Gulf it is one of the two main indentations in the area. ^[3]

Saunders Island, Wolstenholme Island and Bylot Sound lie at the mouth of the fjord, off North Star Bay. Further to the west on the northern shore lies the Granville Fjord.

The fjord's waters are fed by four large glaciers: the Salisbury Glacier, the Chamberlin Glacier, the Knud Rasmussen Glacier, and the Harald Moltke Glacier.

Map of Northwestern Greenland

See also

• List of fjords of Greenland

References

1. "Wolstenholme Fjord". Mapcarta. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
2. Aarkrog, Asker (January 1970). "Radio-Ecological Investigations". USAF Nuclear Safety. Danish Atomic Energy Commission.
3. Prostar Sailing Directions 2005 Greenland and Iceland Enroute, p. 77

Further reading

• Svend Funder, Late Quaternary Stratigraphy and Glaciology in the Thule Area, Northwest Greenland
• United States. Defense Mapping Agency, United States. Naval Oceanographic Office, Sailing Directions for West Coast of Greenland, Volumes 16-968 , PP 338 – 339
• Steven J. Mock, Fluctuations of the terminus of the Moltke Glacier , Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (U.S.), P 2