Nunatarsuaq (old spelling: ''Nunatarssuaq'', ) is a

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 ...

() 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 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 ...

Geography

Nunatarsuaq is one of several nunataks in the

Melville Bay Melville Bay (; ), is a large bay off the coast of northwestern Greenland. Located to the north of the Upernavik Archipelago, it opens to the south-west into Baffin Bay. Its Kalaallisut name, ''Qimusseriarsuaq'', means "the great dog sledding pla ...

region of Greenland, where 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 ...

() drains into the bay alongside its entire length apart from an occasional nunatak.''Upernavik Avannarleq'', Saga Map, Tage Schjøtt, 1992 Nunatarsuaq is located on the mainland of Greenland in the northernmost part of

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 ...

. To the north and east, Greenland icesheet drains into Melville Bay via unnamed, low-altitude

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

Isolation as an island

In the event of glacial retreat, the nunatak will be isolated as an island. Unlike the available maps of Melville Bay,

OpenStreetMap OpenStreetMap (abbreviated OSM) is a free, Open Database License, open geographic database, map database updated and maintained by a community of volunteers via open collaboration. Contributors collect data from surveying, surveys, trace from Ae ...

maps, and the satellite photographs of

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...

show the nunatak as already isolated, with fast sea-ice in place of the retreated icesheet. Kullorsuaq-island-aerial

References

{{coord, 74, 43, N, 56, 58, W, display=title Melville Bay Nunataks of Greenland Upernavik Archipelago