Kaffeklubben Island or Coffee Club Island ( da, Kaffeklubben Ø; kl, Inuit Qeqertaat) is an
uninhabited island lying off the northern tip of
Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland ...
. It contains the
northernmost undisputed point of land on Earth.
Discovery
The first recorded sighting of Kaffeklubben Island was made by American explorer
Robert Peary
Robert Edwin Peary Sr. (; May 6, 1856 – February 20, 1920) was an American explorer and officer in the United States Navy who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best known for, in Apri ...
in 1900; however, the island was not visited until 1921. When the
Danish explorer
Lauge Koch set foot on the island, it received its name after the coffee club in the
University of Copenhagen Geological Museum
The Geological Museum was a geology museum on Øster Voldgade, at the northeast corner of the University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Like the botanical garden, the museum was part of the wider array of centers belongi ...
.
In 1969, a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
team calculated that its northernmost tip is farther north than
Cape Morris Jesup
Cape Morris Jesup ( da, Kap Morris Jesup) is a headland in Peary Land, Greenland.
Geography
Cape Morris Jesup is the northernmost point of mainland Greenland. It is from the geographic North Pole. It is located in Johannes V. Jensen Land, abo ...
, the northernmost point of mainland Greenland, thus claiming its record as the most northerly point on land.
Since its record as the northernmost point of land was established, several
gravel banks have been discovered in the sea to the north of the island, such as
Oodaaq,
83-42, and
ATOW1996; however, there is debate as to whether such gravel banks should be considered for the record since they rarely are permanent, being swallowed regularly by the moving ice sheets, being shifted in tides, or becoming submerged in the ocean.
Geography
Kaffeklubben Island is from the geographic
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Ma ...
. The island lies off
Cape James Hill
Cape James Hill ( da, Kap James Hill) is a headland in the Wandel Sea, Arctic Ocean, northeast Greenland.
The cape was named by Robert Peary after James J. Hill, one of the members of the Peary Arctic Club in New York.
Geography
Cape James Hill ...
, northwest of
Bliss Bay
Bliss Bay ( da, Bliss Bugt) is a bay in the Wandel Sea, Northern Greenland. The area of the bay is uninhabited. Administratively Bliss Bay and its surroundings belong to the Northeast Greenland National Park.
Bliss Bay is clogged by fast ice year ...
,
approximately east of
Cape Morris Jesup
Cape Morris Jesup ( da, Kap Morris Jesup) is a headland in Peary Land, Greenland.
Geography
Cape Morris Jesup is the northernmost point of mainland Greenland. It is from the geographic North Pole. It is located in Johannes V. Jensen Land, abo ...
, a little east of a central point along the northern coast of Greenland. Its most northerly point is 4.4 km north of that of Cape Morris Jesup. It is approximately long,
and approximately across at its widest point. The highest point is approximately above sea level.
Vegetation
Despite the harsh environment, vegetation grows on Kaffeklubben island, including various
moss
Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta ('' sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and ...
es,
liverworts
The Marchantiophyta () are a division of non-vascular land plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of ...
,
lichen
A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.[flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants t ...]
s: ''
Saxifraga oppositifolia'' (purple saxifrage) and ''
Papaver radicatum'' (arctic poppy).
See also
*
List of islands of Greenland
The following is an alphabetical list of the islands of Greenland. Many of these islands have both a Kalaallisut language name and a European language name.
Islands and archipelagoes
* Aaluik
*Aasiaat Archipelago
*Achton Friis Islands
* Ag ...
*
ATOW1996, a gravel bank with a disputed claim as the most northerly land area
*
83-42, a gravel bank with a disputed claim as northernmost point of land
*
List of northernmost items
This is a list of various northernmost things on earth.
Cities and settlements
Geography
Nature
Wild animals
Plants
These lists only contain naturally occurring plants and trees, excluding individuals planted by humans.
General
...
References
{{reflist
Extreme points of Earth
Uninhabited islands of Greenland