| Geography and Climate |
Greenland is located in Northern North America, island between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean, northeast of Canada. Area comparatively slightly more than three times the size of Texas.
Greenland has an arctic to subarctic climate:; cool summers, cold winters. Terrain consists of flat to gradually sloping icecap covers all but a narrow, mountainous, barren, rocky coast.
Elevation extreme has the lowest point in Atlantic Ocean 0 m and highest point in Gunnbjorn 3,700 m. Natural resources are zinc, lead, iron ore, coal, molybdenum, gold, platinum, uranium, fish, seals, whales. Natural hazard is a continuous permafrost over northern two-thirds of the island.
Environment—current issues: protection of the arctic environment; preservation of their traditional way of life, including whaling; note—Greenland participates actively in Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC).
Geography—note: dominates North Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe; sparse population confined to small settlements along coast.
Ref. Anonymous, 1999 |