Kangerlussuaq (; ; ) is a settlement in western

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 ...

in the

Qeqqata Qeqqata (, ) is a municipality in western Greenland, operational from 1 January 2009. The municipality was named after its location in the central-western part of the country. Its population is 9,378 as of January 2020. The administrative cente ...

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

located at the head of the fjord of the same name. It was Greenland's main air transport hub and the site of Greenland's largest commercial airport until the new airport opened at Nuuk on 28 November 2024. The airport dates from American settlement during and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, when the site was known as Bluie West-8 and then Sondrestrom Air Base. The Kangerlussuaq area is also home to Greenland's most diverse terrestrial fauna, including

muskox The muskox (''Ovibos moschatus'') is a hoofed mammal of the family Bovidae. Native to the Arctic, it is noted for its thick coat and for the strong odor emitted by males during the seasonal rut, from which its name derives. This musky odor ha ...

en,

caribou The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only represe ...

, and

gyrfalcon The gyrfalcon ( or ) (), also abbreviated as gyr, is a bird of prey from the genus ''Falco'' (falcons and kestrels) and the largest species of the family Falconidae. A high-latitude species, the gyrfalcon breeds on the Arctic coasts and tundra, ...

s. The settlement's economy and population of 508 is almost entirely reliant on the airport and tourist industry. It is the only town in Greenland which is not located on the proper ocean, being situated at the end of a 160 km long fjord, although it still has a coastline on the ocean.

Geography

Kangerlussuaq occupies an

alluvial Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

flatland on the far end of the 190 km long Kangerlussuaq Fjord, straddling both sides of the Qinnguata Kuussua river

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...

. On the East of Kangerlussuaq is a confluence of the two major regional rivers, the Qinnguata Kuussua and Akuliarusiarsuup Kuua. The valley of the latter forms large

quicksand Quicksand (also known as sinking sand) is a colloid consisting of fine granular material (such as sand, silt or clay) and water. It forms in saturated loose sand when the sand is suddenly agitated. When water in the sand cannot escape, it crea ...

plains. Both rivers originate from the Russell Glacier. The edge of the glacier is easily accessible and is a major tourist attraction from the town, as is the edge of the

ice sheet In glaciology, an ice sheet, also known as a continental glacier, is a mass of glacier, glacial ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than . The only current ice sheets are the Antarctic ice sheet and the Greenland ice sheet. Ice s ...

in the Isunngua highlands to its northeast. Highlands such as Tarajornitsut bound Kangerlussuaq from the north and south. To the southeast behind lake Tasersuatsiaq, which provides fresh water to the town, is the vast highland of Ammalortup Nunaa, the original region artificially populated with 27

en. The town is situated about north of the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the northernmost of the five major circle of latitude, circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth at about 66° 34' N. Its southern counterpart is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circl ...

, and is the starting point for the Arctic Circle Trail.

History

Russells-gletscher-kangerlussuaq-greenland

Kangerlussuaq was founded at the east end of Kangerlussuaq fjord as Bluie West-8 on 7 October 1941, under the supervision of Colonel

Bernt Balchen Bernt Balchen (23 October 1899 – 17 October 1973) was a Norwegian pioneer polar aviator, navigator, aircraft mechanical engineer and military leader. A Norwegian native, he later became an American citizen and was a recipient of the Disting ...

of the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

(USAAF). Following the fall of Denmark to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, US forces assumed security for Greenland, building several bases including Bluie West-1 to the south in

Narsarsuaq Narsarsuaq (lit. ''Great Plain'';''Facts and History of Narsarsuaq'', Narsarsuad Tourist Information old spelling: ''Narssarssuaq'') is a settlement in the Kujalleq municipality in southern Greenland. It had 123 inhabitants in 2020. There is a thr ...

and Bluie West-8 at the Kangerlussuaq fjord. The base briefly came under Danish control in 1950, but following mounting concerns about the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

threat, a new agreement saw the United States reopen Bluie West-8 under the name of Sondrestrom Air Base on 27 April 1951. It served as one of the

Distant Early Warning Line The Distant Early Warning Line, also known as the DEW Line or Early Warning Line, was a system of radar stations in the northern Arctic region of Canada, with additional stations along the north coast and Aleutian Islands of Alaska (see List o ...

bases and a supply station for similar early warning facilities. Following the fall of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, the usefulness of the base was greatly diminished and the last U.S. Air Force personnel left the base on 30 September 1992. The base subsequently came under Greenlandic Home Rule and was renamed using the Kalaallisut dialect of the West Greenland Inuit. This site and Bluie West-1 in Narsarsuaq remain Greenland's best-equipped airports. Almost all of the permanent structures in the town were built during the American occupation of the site.

Climate

The climate in Kangerlussuaq is

subarctic The subarctic zone is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic, north of hemiboreal regions and covering much of Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the north of Fennoscandia, Northwestern Russia, Siberia, and the Cair ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''Dfc''), bordering on

tundra climate The tundra climate is a polar climate sub-type located in high latitudes and high mountains. It is classified as ET according to the Köppen climate classification. It is a climate which at least one month has an average temperature high enough ...

(

''ET'') and unusually for somewhere this far north (in the Arctic Circle), a cold-semi-arid climate (

''BSk''), with the area receiving very little rainfall. In July 2012 a gust of warm air resulted in glacier meltwater which wiped out a key crossing of the Watson River.

Population

The population of Kangerlussuaq dropped significantly after the liquidation of the Sondrestrom Air Base. Since then it has increased by more than 80%, although it has begun dropping again in recent years.

Transport

Air

Until November 2024, Kangerlussuaq Airport was the only civilian airport in Greenland large enough to support large long-range airplanes such as

Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a long-range wide-body aircraft, wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2023. After the introduction of the Boeing 707, 707 in October 1958, Pan Am ...

s, so it long served as Greenland's most important transport hub. Hotel Kangerlussuaq operates at the airport.

Sea

Kangerlussuaq Fjord is navigable in its entire length. There is a seaport at Kangerlussuaq, west of Kangerlussuaq Airport. It is fairly shallow and suitable for small ships only, mainly used by supply ships of the Royal Arctic Line, and unusable in winter. Cruise ships, such as Norway's Hurtigruten, navigate the fjord, anchoring outside the port. They go to Kangerlussuaq mainly to exchange passengers by air, because the travel time to and from Greenland is too long for many passengers. Plans were approved in 2018 to build a new deep port, around west of the present one, together with a road to it.

Road

Kangerlussuaq has the largest road network outside any settlement in Greenland (not counting streets inside the settlement). A

gravel road A gravel road is a type of unpaved road surfaced with gravel that has been brought to the site from a quarry or stream bed. Gravel roads are common in less-developed nations, and also in the rural areas of developed nations such as Canada and ...

through Isunngua connects Kangerlussuaq with the ice sheet, initially serving as venue for car endurance experiments. Since then it has been mainly used for tourist purposes. There are plans to construct a road to Sisimiut () as of 2017. The cost estimates have been between 250 and 500 million

Danish kroner The krone (; plural: ''kroner''; currency sign, sign: kr.; ISO 4217, code: DKK) is the official currency of Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands, introduced on 1 January 1875. Both the ISO code "DKK" and currency sign "kr." are in common ...

(DKK), depending on road quality, and therefore the plans are delayed. The drive time would be much longer than the fly time, and there are also considerations to move the main hub of Air Greenland to

Nuuk Airport Nuuk Airport (, , formerly ; ) is an international airport serving Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. The airport is the hub and technical base for Air Greenland, the flag carrier airline of Greenland, linking the capital with almost all towns in t ...

, closing Kangerlussuaq airport. A road to Sisimiut with a low quality, aimed to

off-road vehicle An off-road vehicle (ORV), also known as an off-highway vehicle (OHV), overland vehicle or adventure vehicle, is a type of transportation specifically engineered to navigate unpaved roads and surfaces. These include trails, forest roads, and ...

s was built 2020-2021, at a cost of 25 million DKK. There are hopes that the road will be rebuilt to a proper paved road in future.

Scientific research

From 1982 to 2018, an

ionospheric The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays ...

and

atmospheric An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosphere ...

research facility known as the Sondrestrom Upper Atmospheric Research Facility was situated at about west of Kangerlussuaq. It was commonly known around the town as Kellyville. It was operated by

SRI International SRI International (SRI) is a nonprofit organization, nonprofit scientific research, scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California, United States. It was established in 1946 by trustees of Stanford Univer ...

for the U.S.

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

and the

Danish Meteorological Institute The Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI; ) is the official Danish meteorological institute, administrated by the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities. It makes weather forecasts and observations for Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Is ...

. The facility was host to more than 20 instruments, the majority of which provide unique and complementary information about the

arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

upper atmosphere. The centerpiece instrument of the facility was an

L band The L band is the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) designation for the range of frequencies in the radio spectrum from 1 to 2 gigahertz (GHz). This is at the top end of the ultra high frequency (UHF) band, at the lower en ...

incoherent scatter (IS) radar with a fully steerable antenna. It was transported from

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

to Kangerlussuaq in 1983.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Populated places established in 1941 Populated places in Greenland Populated places of Arctic Greenland 1941 establishments in Greenland