Wulff Land () is a

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 far 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 ...

. Administratively it is a part of the

Northeast Greenland National Park Northeast Greenland National Park (, ) is the world's largest national park and the 10th largest protected area (the only larger protected areas consist mostly of sea). Established in 1974, the Northeast Greenland national park expanded to its p ...

History

Wulff Land was named after Swedish botanist and Arctic explorer Thorild Wulff (1867–1917), who went with

Knud Rasmussen Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen (; 7 June 1879 – 21 December 1933) was a Greenlandic-Danish polar explorer and anthropologist. He has been called the "father of Eskimology" (now often known as Inuit Studies or Greenlandic and Arctic Studies) ...

on the Second Thule Expedition and died from fatigue near Cape Agassiz in southern

Peabody Bay Peabody Bay () is a large bay in northwestern Greenland. Administratively it is part of Avannaata municipality. Geography Peabody Bay is located on the eastern side of the Kane Basin off the western end of the Humboldt Glacier. Cape Forbes and ...

.Mark Nuttall, ''Encyclopedia of the Arctic'', p. 1744 The Wulff Land peninsula is a barren and inhospitable place. Unlike

Peary Land Peary Land is a peninsula in northern Greenland, extending into the Arctic Ocean. It reaches from Victoria Fjord in the west to Independence Fjord in the south and southeast, and to the Arctic Ocean in the north, with Cape Morris Jesup, the nor ...

to the northeast, no remains of human habitation have been found.

Geography

Wulff Land is located to the northeast of

Warming Land Warming Land is a peninsula in far northern Greenland. Administratively it is a part of the Northeast Greenland National Park. It was named after Danish botanist and ecologist Eugen Warming (1841 – 1924). Geography Warming Land is located betwe ...

and east of

Hendrik Island Hendrik Island is an island in far northern Greenland. Its area is 583 km2. It is part of the Northeast Greenland National Park. The island is named after Inuit Arctic explorer Hendrik Olsen, who was a member of Knud Rasmussen's Second Th ...

across the Sherard Osborn Fjord. Nares Land lies to the east, across the

Victoria Fjord Victoria Fjord, also known as Victoria Inlet, is a large fjord in northern Greenland. Its eastern shore forms the western limit of Peary Land. Geography To the northwest the fjord opens into the Lincoln Sea of the Arctic Ocean. Wulff Land form ...

and Stephenson Island to the northeast.

Cape May Cape May consists of a peninsula and barrier island system in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is roughly coterminous with Cape May County and runs southwards from the New Jersey mainland, separating Delaware Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. Th ...

in the

Lincoln Sea Lincoln Sea (; ) is a body of water in the Arctic Ocean, stretching from Cape Columbia, Canada, in the west to Cape Morris Jesup, Greenland, in the east. The northern limit is defined as the great circle line between those two headlands. It is co ...

is its northernmost headland. To the south, the peninsula is attached to the mainland and its

ice cap In glaciology, an ice cap is a mass of ice that covers less than of land area (usually covering a highland area). Larger ice masses covering more than are termed ice sheets. Description By definition, ice caps are not constrained by topogra ...

. Wulff Land is a largely

unglaciated 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#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often cen ...

and mountainous peninsula with a large

firn __NOTOC__ Firn (; from Swiss German "last year's", cognate with ''before'') is partially compacted névé, a type of snow that has been left over from past seasons and has been recrystallized into a substance denser than névé. It is ice that ...

cap, The Sven Hedin Firn, in its northern part. There are lakes with a landlocked fjord structure in the southern part where the Blue Cliffs rise above one of the lakes.

GoogleEarth Google Earth is a web mapping, web and computer program created by Google that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satelli ...

In the southwest lies Aage Bistrup Land, and west of it the Ryder Glacier, across which lies Permin Land.''Prostar Sailing Directions 2005 Greenland and Iceland Enroute,'' p. 94

Geology

A number of geological formations have been defined in Wulff Land, some of which are fossil-bearing. The Wulff Land Formation, a sequence of black

mudstones Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from ''shale'' by its lack of fissility.Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology.'' New York, New York ...

and fine-grained black or green

siltstones Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed ...

, was erected by Hurst & Surlyk in 1982.

Trace fossils A trace fossil, also called an ichnofossil (; ), is a fossil record of biological activity by lifeforms, but not the preserved remains of the organism itself. Trace fossils contrast with body fossils, which are the fossilized remains of part ...

dating back to the

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 23.5 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the third and shortest period of t ...

period have been found in the formation.

Bibliography

*H.P. Trettin (ed.), ''Geology of the Innuitian Orogen and Arctic Platform of Canada and Greenland''. Geological Survey of Canada (1991)

References

External links