Touring Greenland Trivia Quiz

Answer: True

Greenland is home to just one of two of the world's incredible ice sheets, which are essentially huge areas of continuous ice. The other ice sheet is found in Antarctica, the southernmost continent on Earth.

The criteria for a continuous mass of ice being declared an ice sheet is that the ice must cover over 20,000 square miles of land!

Answer: Fjords

The Greenlandic fjords, more commonly associated with the Scandinavian nation of Norway, are U-shaped valleys that are found where the incredible uninterrupted expanse of ice meets the coastline and the chilled waters of the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans.

Answer: Nunataks

These features truly are magnificent and provide a geological interest amongst the extensive ice. The nunataks are prone to weathering, particularly freeze-thaw, due to extreme conditions. This weathering often results in jagged edges and this provides the nunataks' fabulous character.

Answer: Gunnbjorn Fjeld

Gunnbjørn Fjeld is a particularly large example of a nunatak, a ridge or a peak that protrudes through the surface of the ice. Gunnbjørn Fjeld is estimated to be about 12,000ft high, but this value is far from definite. The mountain is found on the Watkins Range which is home to more of Greenland's wonderful nunataks.

Answer: Cape Farewell

Cape Farewell is found on the same chilly latitude as the Scottish Orkney Islands. In Kalaallisut, the official language of Greenland, Cape Farewell is known as Uummannarsuaq. Please don't ask me to pronounce that, as I don't wish to savage the language!

Answer: Southwest

Nuuk is also known in Danish as Godthåb, which translates into English as "Good Hope". The city is just south of the Arctic Circle, a circle of latitude that most of Greenland lies north of.

Answer: University

Ilisimatusarfik is known in English as the far less exciting University of Greenland and the establishment houses a modest population. Quite generously, the Greenlandic government pays for prospective students to study anywhere in Europe or North America!

Answer: US Air Force

The US Air Force set up a base here to protect Greenland and the rest of North America. Thule was of strategic importance to the USA because of its location, the geographic mid-point between New York City and the Russian capital, Moscow. This was therefore an important base during the Cold War, where there were hostile relations between the USA and the Soviet Union.

Thule Air Base featured in the Dan Brown novel 'Deception Point'.

Answer: Vikings

It is believed that the proto-Inuit tribes or "Thule people" of northeast Greenland came into contact with the Vikings whilst the latter were on their way to the coast of what is now Canada in roughly AD 1000. Interestingly, the houses of the proto-Inuit were made of whale bone!

Answer: No

Greenland is classified as being the largest island in the world that is not a continent. Greenland, despite being historically related to Denmark in Europe, belongs to the North American continent.

Scientists have made interesting discoveries about Greenland and they suggest that the Arctic nation isn't one large land mass at all, but is a group of three separate islands that are clandestinely concealed by the impressive Greenlandic ice sheet.