Cape Morris Jesup
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Cape Morris Jesup () is a
headland A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, Jo ...
in
Peary Land Peary Land is a peninsula in northern Greenland, extending into the Arctic Ocean. It reaches from Victoria Fjord in the west to Independence Fjord in the south and southeast, and to the Arctic Ocean in the north, with Cape Morris Jesup, the nor ...
, Greenland.


Geography

Cape Morris Jesup is the northernmost point of mainland
Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
, the northernmost point of any mainland, and the northernmost land point on Earth except for the small island of Kaffeklubben (and perhaps some other formations which may be islands or may just be temporary gravel banks). The cape is from the geographic North Pole. It is located in Johannes V. Jensen Land, about east of the mouth of Sands Fjord and west of Constable Bay. The cape marks the limit between the Lincoln Sea to the west and the
Wandel Sea The Wandel Sea (; also known as McKinley Sea) is a body of water in the Greenland Sea, stretching from northeast of Greenland to Svalbard. It is obstructed by ice most of the year. This sea is named after Danish polar explorer and hydrographer, ...
to the east. About southeast of the cape there is a river forming a small delta that flows from the Mary Peary Peaks, part of the Roosevelt Range to the south.


Climate


History

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 was long credited as being ...
reached the cape on 13 May 1900, believing it to be the
northernmost point of land The northernmost point of land on Earth is a contentious issue due to variation of definition. How permanent some of the contenders are makes hard determination difficult, but sets an important threshold. Problematic issues include ice sheets, wat ...
in the world, although it was later found to lie slightly to the south of the northernmost tip of Kaffeklubben Island. The cape is named after American philanthropist Morris Ketchum Jesup, president of the Peary Arctic Club, who helped finance Peary's expeditions.


Plants

Specimens of Arctic poppy and purple saxifrage have been found growing in the thin, rocky soil. Cape Morris Jesup is practically a
polar desert Polar deserts are the regions of Earth that fall under an ice cap climate (''EF'' under the Köppen classification). Despite rainfall totals low enough to normally classify as a desert, polar deserts are distinguished from true deserts (' or ' un ...
with roughly 30-day summers. Despite these extremely inhospitable conditions, these two tiny flowering plants eke out a meager existence and persist blooming through summer lows near freezing temperatures.


See also

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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

Morris Jesup Peary Land {{Greenland-geo-stub