Meteorite Island

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

Meteorite Island
Native name:
Savigsivik
Meteorit Ø  (Danish)
Meteorite Island
Geography
LocationBaffin Bay, Greenland
Coordinates76.0197°N 65.1149°W / 76.0197; -65.1149
Administration
Greenland
MunicipalityQaasuitsup
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 part of a small chain of coastal islands formed by Meteorite Island, Salve Island, George Island, Bushnan Island and a small islet, being the largest of the group. 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
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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