The Gronau Nunataks ( da, Gronau Nunatakker) is a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...

King Christian IX Land King Christian IX Land ( da, Kong Christian IX Land) is a coastal area of Southeastern Greenland in Sermersooq Municipality fronting the Denmark Strait and extending through the Arctic Circle from 65°N to 70°N. History This area was named i ...

, eastern

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 i ...

. Administratively this range is part of the

Sermersooq Sermersooq (, da, sted med meget is, lit=place of much ice) is a municipality in Greenland, formed on 1 January 2009 from five earlier, smaller municipalities. Its administrative seat is the city of Nuuk (formerly called Godthåb), the capital ...

Municipality.

History

This group of nunataks at the edge of the vast Greenland Ice Sheet was first reported by German aviation pioneer Wolfgang von Gronau during his 1930 transatlantic flight on a Dornier Wal. The existence of the range was later confirmed by

Lauge Koch Lauge Koch (5 July 1892 – 5 June 1964) was a Danish geologist and Arctic explorer. Biography Lauge Koch was born in 1892 to Karl and Elisabeth Koch. His development as a scientist was greatly influenced by his father's second cousin Johan P ...

during flights in 1933 that were part of the 1931–34 Three-year Expedition to East Greenland ''(Treårsekspeditionen)''. Following the subsequent survey and mapping of the mountains they were named after Wolfgang von Gronau.

Geography

The Gronau Nunataks is a long cluster of nunataks. It is located north of the Watkins Range, beyond the large Christian IV Glacier and to the northeast of the Lindbergh Range. The Greenland Ice Sheet lies to the north and the Wager Nunataks further to the east. The Gronau Glacier is located in the western part of the mountains. The area of the range is remote and uninhabited. Google Earth The Dødemandstoppene (Danish for "Mountains of the Dead", lit. "Peaks of the Dead Men") is a geographic division or part of the Gronau Nunataks located on the eastern side of the Grønlands Styrelse Glacier. The name originated in 1934 at the time of the British Trans-Greenland Expedition by Sir Martin Lindsay in which the dark pyramid or tomb-like mountains were deemed sinister when first seen. Operational Navigation Chart C-13, 3rd edition

Operational Navigation Chart C-13, 3rd edition

Peaks

The highest point of the Gronau Nunataks is a 2,810 m mountain. The area has been explored in recent decades by alpinists and some of the peaks have been named, but data are lacking regarding the exact location of certain peaks.Engel, H. 2007: Gronau Nunatakker, first ascents.

American Alpine Journal The ''American Alpine Journal'' is an annual magazine published by the American Alpine Club. Its mission is "to document and communicate mountain exploration." The headquarters is in Golden, Colorado. Subtitled as a compilation of "The World's M ...

2007, 201–202Burch, S. 2003: Gronau Nunatakker range, first ascents. American Alpine Journal 2003, 282–283.
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/ref> Some of the summits named recently are the following: * HP (2,810 m); highest peak at * Pilotsbjerg (2,726 m) at * Byrnesfjeld (2,628 m) at * Mt. Currahee (2,612 m) at * Abbottsbjerg (2,609 m) at * Helenasbjerg (2,603 m) at * Elizabethsbjerg (2,602 m) at * Mt. Brasenose (2,562 m) at * Mt. Ward (2,550 m) at * Hannahsbjerg (2,520 m) at * Qureshisbjerg (2,517 m) at * Schwerdtfegersbjerg (2,479 m) at * Charlottesbjerg (2,444 m) at * Sarah’s Spur (1,975 m) at

Climate

Being so close to the Greenland Ice Sheet, Polar climate prevails in the Gronau Nunataks. The average annual temperature in the area of the range is -18 °C. The warmest month is July when the average temperature reaches -4 °C and the coldest is February when the temperature sinks to -25 °C.

References

{{Reflist, 2

External links