Ilulissat Icefjord

69.158980555556 - 50.506466666667Koordinaten: 69 ° 9 ' 32 "N, 50 ° 30' 23 " W

The Ilulissat ice fjord is located on the west coast of Greenland.

Fjord and glacier

The to the neighboring town of Ilulissat (Danish: Jakobshavn ) named Ice Fjord ( grönl.: Kangia ) is 250 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle in Greenland's west coast. It extends over 40 kilometers in length and is seven kilometers wide. The glacier is Sermeq Kujalleq, one of the most active glaciers in the world At its landward end. Its flow rate is about 20 meters per day, which equates to an annual amount of ice of 35 cubic kilometers.

Due to the active glacier activity of the fjord is completely filled with ice and icebergs. The so-called calving of the glacier occurred mostly during the summer. Here, huge icebergs calve with a size of up to 700 meters (10 to 12 % of water ) from the edge of the glacier. To achieve the seaward end of the fjord, the icebergs will need around 12 to 15 months. The glacier leads estimated from between five and 10 % of the amount of water that gives off Greenland into the sea.

At the seaward end is of 200 to 225 meters below sea level one Moränenablagerung where stuck under water the larger icebergs. This is the cause of a huge collection of icebergs at this point.

Changes in recent years

During the glacier in the years 1950 to 1999 remained stable, the tongue has retreated in the years 2001 to 2007 by about ten kilometers. At the same time created a team of Technical University of Dresden, an increase in the flow rate of the glacier from 2004 to 40 meters a day fixed.

World Heritage

Due to its enormous size and its importance to the glacier research of Ilulissat ice fjord in 2004 was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Fjords and glaciers have contributed to the study of the structure of the Greenland ice sheet, climate change and related geomorphic processes thanks to their easy accessibility much.

Documentation

In the U.S. documentary Chasing Ice from 2012 and a smaller one in real life 75 minutes lasting huge calving are documented in approximately four minutes and made ​​a size comparison to the New York Manhattan peninsula.