Nunavik Peninsula (, ) is a large

peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

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 ...

. It separates two cultural and geographical regions of northwestern Greenland:

Uummannaq Fjord Uummannaq Fjord is a large fjord system in the northern part of western Greenland, the largest after Scoresby Sund, Kangertittivaq fjord in eastern Greenland. It has a roughly south-east to west-north-west orientation, emptying into the Baffin ...

region in the southeast, and

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 ...

in the north.

Geography

The peninsula extends to the south-west from mainland Greenland at () north of the

system. The waters around the peninsula are

Karrat Fjord Karrat Fjord () is a fjord in Avannaata municipality in western Greenland. Geography Karrat Fjord has its mouth in the Nordost Bay of the Baffin Bay. The head of the fjord is formed by a number of tributaries, including the Rink Glacier, I ...

in the east,

Nordost Bay Nordost Corporation is an American high-end audio company founded in 1991 by Joe Reynolds, Vincent Garino, and Jeffrey Garino and based in Holliston, Massachusetts. Nordost manufactures and sells audio and video cables, interconnects and audio ac ...

in the south and

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 the west. The Ukkusissat Fjord carves deeply into the northeast of the peninsula, running south to north-east-north around the eastern part of the peninsula covered with the Sermikavasak glacier.

Inner fjords

Several fjords cut deep into the peninsula. Running from the western shore inland to then turn north, Sullua (4x50km) is the main waterway, cutting the peninsula into two parts, northwestern being the smaller. Parallel Umiiviup Kangerlua (4x8km) and Kangiusap Imaa (3x7km) fjord bays cut into the southeastern shore.

Settlements

The peninsula is administered as part of the

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. It is largely uninhabited − permanent settlements are located in the

off the north-west-northern coast of the peninsula, including Upernavik Kujalleq,

Kangersuatsiaq Kangersuatsiaq (old spelling: ''Kangerssuatsiaq''), formerly Prøven, is an island settlement in the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland. It had 130 inhabitants in 2020. Geography Upernavik Archipelago Kangersuatsiaq is locate ...

Upernavik Kanunarinaqiniiaaq (known as Upernavik) is a small town in the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland, located on a small island of the same name. With 1,064 inhabitants as of 2024, it is the twelfth-largest town in Greenland. It c ...

town, and Aappilattoq. There are several settlements on the islands off the southwestern coast, including Nuugaatsiaq and Illorsuit in the

system. Ukkusissat is the only mainland settlement in the vicinity, located on the smaller, Ukkusissat Peninsula.

Geology

Rocks and sediments on Nunavik Peninsula are of

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

and

Paleocene The Paleocene ( ), or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 mya (unit), million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), ...

origin, with further layers deposited during the movement of Greenland towards the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

. Similarly to the Uummannaq area, ancient

volcanic A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often fo ...

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

s are exposed throughout the peninsula.Full 3D structure, tectonic development and modelling of the Svartenhuk inner-SDR wedge
M. Abdelmalak, M. Leroy, J.P. Gélard, R. Aite & L.Geoffroy (Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 9, 02616, 2007)

References

{{reflist, 30em

External links

at Greenland-guide.gl Peninsulas of the Upernavik Archipelago Uummannaq Fjord