Satellite image of northern Peary Land including Cape Morris Jesup.
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Geography | |
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Location | Northeast Greenland |
Coordinates | 82°38′N 32°30′W / 82.633°N 32.500°WCoordinates: 82°38′N 32°30′W / 82.633°N 32.500°W |
Adjacent bodies of water | Victoria Fjord |
Length | 360 km (224 mi) |
Width | 200 km (120 mi) |
Highest elevation | 1,910 m (6,270 ft) |
Highest point | Unnamed peak |
Administration | |
Greenland (Denmark)
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Demographics | |
Population | 0 |
Peary Land is a peninsula in northern Greenland, extending into the Arctic Ocean. It reaches from Victoria Fjord in the west to Independence Fjord in the south and southeast, and to the Arctic Ocean in the north, with Cape Morris Jesup, the northernmost point of Greenland's mainland, and Cape Bridgman in the northeast.
Peary Land is bounded by Lincoln Sea (west of Cape Morris Jesup) and Wandel Sea of the Arctic Ocean in the north. Oodaaq island, the northernmost point of land of the world, lies off the north coast. Frederick E. Hyde Fjord, which cuts into Peary Land from the east 150 km deep, divides it into Northern Peary Land and Southern Peary Land. The coastline is deeply indented by smaller fjords.
Peary Land is not part of any municipality, but is part of the Northeast Greenland National Park. The size of the region is about 375 km east-west and 200 km north-south, with an estimated area of 57 000 km2. It is only a bit more than 700 km south of the North Pole. It is free of Greenland's inland ice cap. Being mostly north of the 82°N parallel, it contains the most northerly ice-free region of the world, mostly in Southern Peary Land (such as Melville Land just north of the Independence Fjord). Precipitation levels are so low (only about 25 to 200 mm per year, all as snow) that it is called a polar desert. It was not covered by glaciers during the most recent ice age. However, in its western part, there is a local icecap, Hans Tausen Icecap, with ice at least 344 m thick.
Peary Land is mountainous, according to certain sources 1,737 m high Wistar Bjerg is the highest peak of Peary Land; 1,155 meters high Mara Mountain of the Roosevelt Mountain Range is another high summit. However, there are unnamed elevations reaching up to 1,950 m in the heavily glaciated Roosevelt Range and possibly comparable heights in the little-explored H.H. Benedict Range.