Meteorite Island

Meteorite Island (Danish: Meteorit Ø) is an island in Baffin Bay, in Avannaata municipality, off NW Greenland.[1]

Meteorite Island
Native name:
Savigsivik
Meteorit Ø (Danish)
Meteorite Island is located in Greenland
Meteorite Island
Meteorite Island
Geography
LocationBaffin Bay, Greenland
Coordinates76.0197°N 65.1149°W / 76.0197; -65.1149
Administration
Greenland
MunicipalityAvannaata
Demographics
Populationuninhabited

The Cape York Meteorite fell thousands of years ago on the southern shore of this island.[2]

Geography

Meteorite Island is quite barren and desolate. It lies off the shore of Meteor Bay and is the largest of the group part of a small chain of coastal islands formed by Meteorite Island, Salve Island, George Island, Bushnan Island and a small islet. This chain of islands is located between Cape York and Cape Melville.[3]

The Inuit village of Savissivik is located at the southwestern end of Meteorite Island.[4] The settlement has a heliport, Savissivik Heliport and in 2010 it had 66 inhabitants.[5] In the Greenlandic language, the name of the settlement Savissivik means 'place of meteorite iron' (savik = iron/knife),[6] alluding to the numerous meteorites from 10,000 years ago that have been found in the area.[7] The meteorite is estimated to have weighed 100 tonnes before it exploded.[7] The iron from the meteorite attracted migrating Inuit from Arctic Canada.[7]

19th century photograph of Meteorite Island
Meteorite Island is located in Thule, Greenland
Meteorite Island
Location of Meteorite Island

See also

References
  1. Hakluyt Island, Greenland
  2. The cultural history of the Innaanganeq meteorite
  3. 1:1,000,000 scale Operational Navigation Chart, Sheet B-8, 3rd edition
  4. Mapcarta - Savissivik
  5. Statistics Greenland Archived 2011-08-12 at the Wayback Machine (in Danish)
  6. quarkexpeditions.com
  7. "Lured by iron meteorite". Suluk. Air Greenland. 4: 6. 2010.
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