Fleming Fjord is a
fjord
In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...
in
King Christian X Land, eastern
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 ...
.
Administratively it lies in the
Sermersooq
Sermersooq () is a municipality in Greenland, formed on 1 January 2009 from five previous, smaller municipalities. Its administrative seat is the city of Nuuk (formerly called Godthåb), the capital of Greenland, and it is the most populous ...
Municipality.
History
This fjord was named "Fleming Inlet" by British
explorer
Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...
William Scoresby
William Scoresby (5 October 178921 March 1857) was an English whaler, Arctic explorer, scientist and clergyman.
Early years
Scoresby was born in the village of Cropton near Pickering south-west of Whitby in Yorkshire. His father, Willia ...
(1789 – 1857) after Scottish scholar
John Fleming (1785–1857). Scoresby assumed that this fjord connected with "Hall Inlet" (
Hall Bredning) to the south.
After more than a century, this fjord was finally properly explored and mapped by Danish
Arctic explorer
Arctic exploration is the physical exploration of the Arctic region of the Earth. It refers to the historical period during which mankind has explored the region north of the Arctic Circle. Historical records suggest that humankind have explored ...
Georg Carl Amdrup
Vice-Admiral Sir Georg Carl Amdrup (November 19, 1866 – January 15, 1947) was a Royal Danish Navy officer and explorer.
Career
In 1884, Amdrup, of the Royal Danish Navy, was sent to Amassalik. After wintering, he explored the coast to the n ...
during the
Three-year Expedition to East Greenland ''(Treårsekspeditionen)'' (1931–1934). Although Amdrup's survey proved that it was a fjord, the name "Fleming Inlet" continued to be used on maps for many years.
A small wintering station was built in 1934 on the east side of Fleming Fjord near Cape Brown at the mouth of the Vimmelskaftet Valley during the time of the Three-year Expedition to East Greenland.
[Spencer Apollonio, ''Lands That Hold One Spellbound: A Story of East Greenland,'' 2008, p. 192]
A Norwegian hunting hut was built in 1954 on the north side of the fjord SW of Kap Biot, at the time of
Hermann Andresen’s expedition. Another one was built nearby in 1955 by
Otto Lapstun, who had moved it from nearby Nathorst Fjord.
Geography
Fleming Fjord is located SE of the mouth of
Davy Sound
The Davy Sound () is a sound in King Christian X Land, Northeast Greenland. Administratively it is part of the Northeast Greenland National Park zone. History
The sound was named and put on the map by William Scoresby (1789 – 1857) in 1822 in h ...
, cutting into
Jameson Land
Jameson Land is a peninsula in eastern Greenland.
Geography
Jameson Land is bounded to the southwest by Scoresby Sound (the world's largest fjord), to the northwest by the Stauning Alps, to the north by Scoresby Land, to the northeast by the F ...
, extending roughly southwestwards for about . The NW side of its mouth lies at the limit of Sermersooq Municipality, the
Northeast Greenland National Park
Northeast Greenland National Park (, ) is the world's largest national park and the 10th largest protected area (the only larger protected areas consist mostly of sea). Established in 1974, the Northeast Greenland national park expanded to its p ...
lying beyond
Cape Biot
Cape Biot () is a headland in the Greenland Sea, Northeast Greenland, Sermersooq municipality.
History
This headland was named "Cape Biot" by William Scoresby (1789 – 1857) in 1822 to honour physicist, astronomer and mathematician Jean Bapt ...
. To the east lies the
Wegener Peninsula and
Cape Brown, beyond which lies
Nathorst Fjord
Alfred Gabriel Nathorst (7 November 1850 – 20 January 1921) was a Swedish Arctic explorer, geologist, and palaeobotanist. He travelled to Spitzbergen, Svalbard and Greenland where he took an interest in the Arctic floras from the Paleozoic ...
.
On most stretches of the shore mountains rise very steeply on both sides of the fjord culminating in sharp peaks. Most years the fjord is blocked with ice even in the summer.
[''Prostar Sailing Directions 2005 Greenland and Iceland Enroute'', p. 118]
See also
*
Fleming Fjord Formation
The Fleming Fjord Formation, alternatively called the Fleming Fjord Group is an Upper Triassic geological formation in the northeastern coast of Jameson Land, Greenland. It consists of terrestrial sediments and is known for its fossil content.
...
*
List of fjords of Greenland
This is a list of the most important fjords of Greenland:In Greenland, Northern Greenland, a large area made up entirely of fjords; therefore Peary Land above not a fjord but a fjord area.In Greenland, Northeastern Greenland, a large area made ...
Bibliography
Jens N. Lallensack, Hendrik Klein, Jesper Milàn, Oliver Wings, Octávio Mateus, and Lars B. Clemmensen. ''Sauropodomorph dinosaur trackways from the Fleming Fjord Formation of East Greenland: Evidence for Late Triassic sauropods'', Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 62 (4), 2017: 833-843
References
External links
Simplified geologic map of Central Fjord region of East GreenlandThe vertebrate-bearing Late Triassic Fleming Fjord Formation of central East Greenland revisited: Stratigraphy, palaeoclimate and new palaeontological data.The Late Triassic Tetrapod Fauna of the Fleming Fjord Formation, East Greenland
Fjords of Greenland
{{Greenland-geo-stub
nl:Flemingfjord