Ikerasaa Strait (old spelling: ''Ikerasâ'') is a

strait A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the ...

in the

Upernavik Archipelago Upernavik Archipelago is a vast coastal archipelago in the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland, off the shores of northeastern Baffin Bay. The archipelago extends from the northwestern coast of Sigguup Nunaa peninsula in the south at ...

Avannaata Avannaata (, ) is a municipality of Greenland created on 1 January 2018 from the bulk of the former Qaasuitsup municipality. It encompasses an area of 522,700 km2 and has 10,726 inhabitants. Geography In the south, Avannaata is flanked ...

municipality in northwestern

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 strait separates Kiatassuaq Island in the north from the mainland

Sanningassorsuaq Peninsula Sanningassorsuaq Peninsula (old spelling: ''Sáningassorssuaq'') is a mainland peninsula in northwestern Greenland, located at the northern end of Upernavik Archipelago.''Upernavik Avannarleq'', Saga Map, 1:250.000, Tage Schjøtt, 1992 Geograph ...

in the south.''Upernavik Avannarleq'', Saga Map, Tage Schjøtt, 1992 The name of the strait is the local dialect version of ''ikerasak'', a generic word for 'strait' in the

Greenlandic language Greenlandic, also known by its Endonym and exonym, endonym Kalaallisut (, ), is an Inuit languages, Inuit language belonging to the Eskaleut languages#Internal classification, Eskimoan branch of the Eskaleut languages, Eskaleut language family. ...

Geography

Ikerasaa-strait-qaqqasungnarsuaq-nunataq

The strait is long and at most wide. Located in the northern part of Upernavik Archipelago, it is an inner waterway of

Inussulik Bay Inussulik Bay (, old spelling: ''Inugsugdlip Imâ'') is a bay in the Upernavik Archipelago in Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland. Geography The bay is located in the northern part of Upernavik Archipelago, between Kiatassuaq Isl ...

, linking it with Alison Bay in the northeast. In the northwest, the strait is bounded by the mountainous Kiatassuaq Island. In the northwest, the strait splits into two channels, with the small Milissua Island straddling the middle. The northern channel is very narrow, and both channels often choked with icebergs from the

Greenland ice sheet The Greenland ice sheet is an ice sheet which forms the second largest body of ice in the world. It is an average of thick and over thick at its maximum. It is almost long in a north–south direction, with a maximum width of at a latitude ...

() reaching the waterline at the east end of the strait, and the confluence with Alison Bay. The southern coast of the strait is undeveloped, formed by the

, and the

nunatak A nunatak (from Inuit language, Inuit ) is the summit or ridge of a mountain that protrudes from an ice field or glacier that otherwise covers most of the mountain or ridge. They often form natural pyramidal peaks. Isolated nunataks are also cal ...

at its root.

References

{{coord, 74, 28, N, 56, 35, W, scale:500000, display=title Inussulik Bay Straits of the Upernavik Archipelago