Greenland
Expedition XVII
Uummannaq
Avannarleqmoot!
Jason E. Box
6 – 26
July, 2008
An Uummannaq
district iceberg.
Uummannaq
Island seen from the east in the evening.
10 July
Tupilaq figurines in the
window of Ann Andreasen
and Ole-Jurgen Hammeken's home.
A few of the many Ulus
decorate the walls of Ann Andreasen and
Ole-Jurgen Hammeken's
home.
Ann Andreasen and Ole-Jurgen Hammeken's
home, visible from a boat, the blue house with white deck fence at
top-center
of the frame.
Uummannaq's next generation of
sled dogs.
\
A 70 deg. N goalie.
The women of Uummannaq vs.
those of Upernavik.
Uummannaq won 3 -1.
Lene Holm, an
ethnographer studying huntersÕ
knowledge of climate change was also a guest at Ann and
Ole-JurgenÕs home.
12 July
...departing Uummannaq
Island into foggy waters
Ian Howat and Slawek Tulaczyk
with water
temperature, salinity, and turbidity profiling instrument measuring to
depths
up to 880 m
The fog began to clear as we
went eastward
toward Store Gletscher.
Each iceberg deserved a photo.
The large tabular icebergs (ilulia manitsoq) that have yet to break up and turn over into smaller pieces are considered the most dangerous.
Gulls
trailed the boat and squabbled to be in optimal food position. But we
were only
fishing for data!
We boated into the fjord just
north of Store
Gletscher and had this view of the steep Lille Gletscher
(little
glacier).
At the mouth of Lille
Gletscher fjord Slawek got
almost a full meter of glacial silt.
Jakob the deck mate
Dramatic headlands surround
...and more...
The light on our return to
Uummannaq island
inspired more photos.
Uummannaq island (1.2 km
tall), towering like a
fortress over the sea of relatively puny icebergs.
14 July
Uummannaq harbour viewed from the air as our helicopter charter took off.
We flew the length of
Uummannaq fjord, the same
we had boated the previous day.
Here visible is the island we
visited the
previous day to gather the seismometer and reset the tidal gauge.
This iceberg we came to know
well having seen it
earlier in a satellite image and having watched it drift slowly
westward since
May.
One of our 5 sentinel cameras
on Store Glacier is here
visible to the right
of the stone pile.
At last, flying (eastward)
over Store Gletscher,
on our way to attempt recovery of IanÕs on-ice GPS and my
climate station.
18 July
The view of the small
peninsula we landed at in
Rink fjord, as we began our ascent to the topographic saddle where we
camped.
The view of
Umiamiko fjord
after we had hiked over to it from Rink fjord.
Umiamiko
Isbrae 19 July, 2008
seen from the
south side at 750 m above the sea.
19
July
Jason
Box along the hike to one of the Umiamiko time lapse cameras. Photo: T.
Ballinger.
22
July
The view of the northern part
of
Upernavik Island to the south ~5 km south of Nuugaatsiaq.
Jaakuaraq
(Jakob), without whos expertise, we would likely not have had success.
there, a 'small' tidewater mountain
glacier!
Upernavik island on the left,
Ukuliariseq
peninisula on the right, heading east into calmer waters than out in
Iglordsuit
Sound.
An
early season (21 July, 20087) snow had
capped the high peaks.
A 1700 m horn
rises from the
southeastern shore of Upernavik Island.
The
scenery among the fjords inspired perpetual awe.
24 July
Ilulissat icebergs with
the fabled Greenlandic Giant Gull (Gull-Gigantus-Groenlandica)
attacking the tourist boat.
A grounded Ilulissat iceberg
grounded,
with tidal line
visible.
Yet another enornmous iceberg
grounded at the
mouth of the Ilulissat icefjord.
26 July
Awoke 5:50 AM
for 6:15 walk to breakfast with Mark Fahnestock, Joe McConnell, and
many other
scientists departing Greenland 8:15am with the Air National Guard.