Wandeltal
The Wandeltal (also Danish Wandel Dal , Wandeldal , Wandels Dal or English Wandel Valley ) is a 70 km long valley in the south of the Pearyland peninsula in North Greenland, running exactly in an east-west direction . The valley lies at latitude 82.25 ° north and is thus in one of the northernmost areas on earth. The valley was first described in more detail in 1923 by the Danish polar explorer Lauge Koch . The name of the valley after the Danish oceanographer Carl Frederik Wandel , who explored this region in the 1890s and after whom the Wandelsee is named , also goes back to Koch .
The landscape of the Wandeltal
In the far west of the valley is Aftenstjerne Sø ("Evening Star Lake ") at 307 m above sea level . From its eastern end the Sydpas Elv ("South Pass River") flows through the valley, which in this section is also called Sydpasset , to the western end of Øvre Midsommer Sø ("Upper Midsummer Lake "). The estuary is in the area of a small bay called Baggården ("backyard"). From here, the Wandeldal is shaped 40 kilometers by the Upper and Lower Midsummer Lakes ( Øvre and Nedre Midsommer Sø ). The two lakes are connected by a short river called Slusen ("lock"). From the eastern end of the Lower midsummer lake of clear flowing midsummer River ( Midsummer Elv ) to Jørgen-Brønlund Fjord . Only in the lower 15 kilometers does the river water mix with the murky water of the Itukkussuk River ( Itukkussuk Elv ), which brings melt water from the Christian Erichsen Glacier ( Christian Erichsen Iskappe ). Before it flows into the western end of the Jørgen-Brønlund Fjord, the Midsummer River forms an extensive delta .
The Jørgen-Brønlund-Fjord forms a branch of the Independence-Fjord , which runs northeast into the Wandelsee .
Climate and previous settlement
The Wandeltal is characterized by a comparatively favorable mesoclimate , which is why it was inhabited earlier. Archaeological investigations have revealed a number of remains, including year-round settlements of the Independence I , Independence II and Thule cultures . The human presence in this region did not end until the 15th century AD, today the northernmost settlements on earth are several hundred kilometers further south. According to the current state of research (2003) eleven sites of the Independence I culture can be identified in the Wandeltal, one of the Independence II culture and no fewer than 14 sites of the Thule culture. A further nine sites have not yet been dated.
literature
- Bjarne Grønnow, Jens Fog Jensen: The Northernmost Ruins of the Globe . Eigil Knuth's Archaeological Investigations in Peary Land and Adjacent Areas of High Arctic Greenland (= Man & Society . Volume 29 ). Museum Tusculanums Forlag, Københavns Universitet , Copenhagen 2003, ISBN 978-87-635-3065-1 , Wandel Dal - a High Arctic Oasis, p. 56–119 (English, mtp.hum.ku.dk [PDF; accessed December 23, 2012]).
Coordinates: 82 ° 16 ′ N , 36 ° 0 ′ W