At about 6:00 a.m., National Geographic Explorer cruises past the mouth of Ilulissat Icefjord, north of the Arctic Circle. The entrance, or terminus, is an icy wall, a couple hundred feet tall in places. The fjord is almost straight. It was not made by any valley glacier twisting and turning like a frozen river. This fjord was made by a mighty arm of the Greenland Icecap that punched its way through mountains and valleys from Greenland’s interior to the sea. We dock in Ilulissat. It is a pretty town, but our day is built around Ilulissat Icefjord, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The iceberg parent is Sermeq Kujalleq (formerly Jakobshavn Glacier), the most active glacier in the world, north of Antarctica. Today, we explore the icefjord from the land and the sea.
- Daily Expedition Reports
- 11 Aug 2023
Ilulissat, Greenland, 8/11/2023, National Geographic Explorer
- Aboard the National Geographic Explorer
- Arctic
Dennis Cornejo, Naturalist
Dennis has spent more than half of his life working with Lindblad Expeditions. He first studied biology in the Sonoran Desert. It was his work with the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum that brought him into contact with Sven Lindblad. Dennis was working ...
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We arrived at the beautiful town of Ilulissat early in the morning, and from then on it was all about ice. Ilulissat means ‘iceberg,’ which is the only proper name to describe this incredible place. The sculpturesque icebergs that can be seen both from sea and from great viewpoints at the UNESCO site originate from Sermeq Kujalleq, otherwise known as Jakobshavn Glacier, which is almost forty miles away from the town. We started out on a cruise amongst these bergs with a few humpbacks hanging around as well. Slightly overcast skies gave the scene a very dramatic feel. After lunch, we headed toward the Ice Fjord Museum. A boardwalk took us down to the UNESCO site, which offers great views of the bergs from a higher viewpoint. But we were not done with the ice. Captain Aaron took us through the maze as the sun was slowly setting for a last chance to see this amazing place before we moved onward for tomorrow’s adventures.
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