Meteorite Island () is an
island
An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...
in
Baffin Bay
Baffin Bay (Inuktitut: ''Saknirutiak Imanga''; ; ; ), located between Baffin Island and the west coast of Greenland, is defined by the International Hydrographic Organization as a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is sometimes considered a s ...
, in
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, off NW
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
Cape York Meteorite
The Cape York meteorite, also known as the Innaanganeq meteorite, is one of the largest known iron meteorites, classified as a medium octahedrite in chemical group IIIAB meteorites, IIIAB. In addition to many small fragments, at least eight large ...
fell thousands of years ago on the southern shore of this island.
Geography
Meteorite Island is quite barren and desolate. It lies off the shore of
Meteor Bay
A meteor, known colloquially as a shooting star, is a glowing streak of a small body (usually meteoroid) going through Earth's atmosphere, after being heated to incandescence by collisions with air molecules in the upper atmosphere,
creating a ...
and is the largest of the group part of a small chain of coastal islands formed by Meteorite Island,
Salve Island,
George Island,
Bushnan Island and a small islet. This chain of islands is located between
Cape York and
Cape Melville.
The Inuit village of
Savissivik is located at the southwestern end of Meteorite Island. The settlement has a heliport,
Savissivik Heliport and in 2010 it had 66 inhabitants.
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. ...
, the name of the settlement ''Savissivik'' means 'place of meteorite iron' (''savik'' = iron/knife),
quarkexpeditions.com
/ref> alluding to the numerous meteorite
A meteorite is a rock (geology), rock that originated in outer space and has fallen to the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the original object enters the atmosphere, various factors such as friction, pressure, and chemical ...
s from 10,000 years ago that have been found in the area.iron
Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...
from the meteorite attracted migrating Inuit
Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...
from Arctic Canada
Northern Canada (), colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada, variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories a ...
.
See also
* List of islands of Greenland
References
External links
The small Inuit village of Savissivik on Meteorite Island. Northwest Greenland
Islands of Greenland
Avannaata
Islands of Baffin Bay
{{Greenland-geo-stub