Geography
Geography and topography
The village of Ittoqqortoormiit (Scoresbysund) is situated on the coast of East Greenland at a of latitude of 70°30´N. The closest neighbouring town in Greenland is Tasiilaq, about 800 km to the southwest. Iceland is the closest neighbouring country, approximately 500 km south across Denmark Strait.
The name Ittoqqortoormiit is normally used for the largest of three villages or settlements of the region, and means “those who live in the large houses”. The other two settlements are Uunartoq (Kap Tobin) and Ittajimmiit (Kap Hope).
All three settlements are situated at the southern tip of Liverpool Land along the northern entrance to Scoresby Sund. The name Ittoqqortoormiit also is used for the entire Greenland municipality which extends westward to near the center of the Greenland Ice Cap.
In the north it boarders on the Greenland National Park (the largest in the world) and to the south west it boarders on the Ammassalik municipality.
Liverpool Land is a mountainous peninsula bordering on the Arctic Ocean and is seperated from Jameson Land in the west by Hurry Fjord and Carlsberg Fjord.
Jameson Land is characterised by a ice-free, gently rooling topography of generally low relief. Its character reflects the relatively non-resistant nature of the sedimentary bedrock of this area. Jameson Land is bordered on the west by the Schucert River.
Immediately to the west and north of the Suchert Valey the topography changes markedly with the dramatic Stauning Alps reaching elevations up to 2500 meters. The Scoresby Sund fjord system penetrates westward into this mountainous region and divides it into several large regions or sectors.
These include Renland to the north, Milne Land (the second largest island in Greenland) and Gaaseland in the south. Scoresby Sund´s southern shore, the Volquart Boons Coast, is underlain by a thick series of continental flood basalts that were erupted between 59 and 56 million years ago during the opening of the present Atlantic Ocean.
The contrast between the stepped black basaltic layers and deep blue glacier ice provide some of the most stunning scenery in all of Greenland. The eastern promontory of this coastline is Kap Brewster, the most prominent land mark seen from the settlements. The open Atlantic coast, the Blosseville Coast, extends south from Kap Brewster toward Ammassalik.
This is mountainous, generally barren and extensively glaciated. For more details see www.kms.dk