Peary Land
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. 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 belongs to the county of Avannaa (North Greenland). It 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. The area is mountainous, with elevations to 1 950 m in the heavily glaciated Roosevelt Range and to comparable heights in the little-explored H.H. Benedict Range. 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.
Caribou and musk oxen are supported by the sparse vegetation, which covers only about 5% of the surface, and which includes 33 species of flowering plants. Other fauna includes arctic fox, polar wolf, polar bear, and arctic hare.
One to two million years ago, when climates were warmer, trees such as larch, black spruce, birch, yew, and thuja grew in the northernmost Peary Land.
The area is named after Robert E. Peary, who first explored it during his expedition of 1891 to 1892.