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| photo credit: Dave Marcus | photo credit: Dave Marcus |
Moving further to the north direction above Iceland is another land called Greenland. Interesting name. Greenland is almost like Antarctica because of its polar climate. So does this mean that there's more vegetation here than in Iceland? With over around 80% of its area covered by the ice sheet, Greenland seems more icelandic or "ice-ish" than Iceland. But why call it "Greenland"? According to the Icelandic sagas, an Icelander was exiled from Iceland for murder. It was said that during his exile, he set out with his constituents to find a rumored land in the northwest. They found it, settled there, and named the land Grœnland. The name is translated as "Greenland". It was named as such in order to attract settlers. Hmm, also interesting. Were they successful? I'm not sure, but for a land with an area of about 2.2 million square kilometers, including the nearby islands, the population is a little bit more than 56,000 as of mid 2013. It is sparsely populated, but it can also be a feat already considering the freezing climate all year round.
Greenland is the largest island in the world in terms of land area since it is not considered to be a continent (think about Australia or Antarctica). However, considering the ice sheet, which is said to depress the central region to altitudes below sea level, Greenland was determined by a survey in 1951 to be composed of three large islands. We don't see it right now, but global warming can reveal that physically.
From climate reports, it was said that the average temperature all year round is getting higher. As a consequence, new islands are getting exposed; and in 2007, a new island called "Uunartoq Qeqertaq" or "Warming Island" was announced when a glacier had melted completely. Well that's probably another way of creating an island after a previous method called "series of volcanic eruptions". So we now have "glacier melting" and "series of volcanic eruptions". Kidding aside, melting of glacier is indeed a sign of a serious climate situation. Just like Antarctica, Greenland is also experiencing the pressure of climate change.
Greenland is the largest island in the world in terms of land area since it is not considered to be a continent (think about Australia or Antarctica). However, considering the ice sheet, which is said to depress the central region to altitudes below sea level, Greenland was determined by a survey in 1951 to be composed of three large islands. We don't see it right now, but global warming can reveal that physically.
From climate reports, it was said that the average temperature all year round is getting higher. As a consequence, new islands are getting exposed; and in 2007, a new island called "Uunartoq Qeqertaq" or "Warming Island" was announced when a glacier had melted completely. Well that's probably another way of creating an island after a previous method called "series of volcanic eruptions". So we now have "glacier melting" and "series of volcanic eruptions". Kidding aside, melting of glacier is indeed a sign of a serious climate situation. Just like Antarctica, Greenland is also experiencing the pressure of climate change.
There is something green in that island indeed:
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| photo credit: Susan Liepa |
