Qaanaaq (pronounced [qaːnaːq]) is a town and municipality in northwestern Greenland. It is the only town and the only municipality in the county of North Greenland (Avannaa). Qaanaaq was founded when the US extended their current airbase at Thule and the former population of Pituffik was forced to move out 19 miles to the north within 4 days. The inhabitants of Qaanaaq speak the West Greenlandic language and many also speak Inuktun. The town of Qaanaaq has a population of 640, and the whole municipality 850 (as of 1 January 2005). In addition to the town, there are five inhabited villages:
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- Savissivik: pop. 78, in the northern part of Melville Bay, in the south of the municipality
- Moriusaq: 21 (about 30 km off Thule Air Base)
- Qeqertat: 22 (on the main island of the Harward Øer)
- Qeqertarsuaq: 12 (on Herbert Ø island)
- Siorapaluk: 87 (one of the northernmost settlements in the world at 77°47'N)
All villages are losing population, since people are moving to the town. Historically, the number of villages has been higher, but some have been abandoned. This process of population concentration in the towns is observed through all of Greenland. Etah, an abandoned village which once was the northernmost village of the world (at 78°19'N), lies 78 km northwest of Siorapaluk. The municipality has an area of 225,500 km² (87,050 mi²), a large portion of which is ice cap area. It is the largest municipality in Greenland and probably in the world (the surface area is larger than the United Kingdom). It borders on Upernavik municipality on the south, on the unincorporated area of the Northeast Greenland National Park on the east, on the Arctic Ocean on the north, and on the Nares Strait, which separates North Greenland from Ellesmere Island of Nunavut, Canada on the west. The Thule Air Base (Pituffik), which is not part of Qaanaaq or any other municipality (it is, like the Greenland National Park, unincorporated territory), is a part of the U.S. network of early warning radars, and is an important facility in the recent discussion of the National Missile Defense (NMD). The proposed update of the facility (X-band Radar) to meet the demands of the NMD is controversial within Greenland and Denmark (Greenland is a part of the Kingdom of Denmark). On January 22, 1968, a B-52 crashed seven miles south of the Thule Air Force Base. Nuclear bombs were lost and debris scattered over the area in the accident. [1] Near Qaanaaq there is one of the tallest constructions in Greenland, the 378 meter Radio Mast Thule. [2] [3] Qaanaaq is the world's most northerly palindrome. Air Greenland operates air services to Qaanaaq Airport.
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References
Further reading
- Murray, Louise. 2006. "On Thin Ice - Louise Murray Travels to Qaanaaq in Northern Greenland to See the Effect That Climate Change Is Having on Subsistence Hunters and Their Prey". Geographical : the Royal Geographical Society Magazine. 32.
- Remie, C. H. W. Facing the Future Inughuit Youth of Qaanaaq : Report of the 1998 University of Nijmegen Student Expedition to Qaanaaq, Thule District, Northern Greenland. Nijmegen: Nijmegen University Press, 1999. ISBN 9057100789
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