The Orange And The Greenland Trivia Quiz

Answer: It is the world's largest national park

Northeast Greenland National Park is the largest national park in the world and covers an area larger than all but 29 of the world's 195 countries. It protects 375,000 sq mi (972,000 sq km) and is the northernmost national park in the world. It was the first national park created in Denmark. Established in 1974 it has no permanent human population.

Greenland belongs to Denmark, not Canada. Penguins are found at the south pole not the north pole. No country owns the north pole.

This question was dog sledded into the quiz by Phoenix Rising member tazman6619.

Answer: Glaciers

Glaciers cover around 80% of the island of Greenland. The flag is two colours only - interestingly green is not one of them. Christiansen stated that the lower red part of the flag represents the sea, with the setting sun reflected in the sea. The two colours of the horizontal stripes (red and white) have a circle of the same colours inverted in the flag just left of centre; while the white semicircle suggests the icebergs that drift off the coast of Greenland, the red semicircle evokes the sun.

Christiansen, a Greenlandic Inuit teacher and artist, proposed the design of the inaugural flag when a contest was announced in 1978. This was the first time Greenland was permitted to have its own emblematic flag. The successful design is the same colours as the flag of Denmark, the country of which Greenland is a dependency, and is known as 'Erfalasorput', which means 'our flag'.

This question was waved into the quiz by Phoenix Rising's teammate VegemiteKid.

Answer: True

A land bridge is an isthmus or a wide land area that connects between two separate areas. The idea was first mooted in the nineteenth century to explain the geological and zoological similarities of two areas that were separated by great distances. The Thule Land Bridge connected Greenland to the British Isles, generally, what we know as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. That bridge is now submerged beneath the Atlantic Ocean.

The theories about this bridge include:
- It arose during the Late Paleocene
- It was disappeared beneath the ocean during the early Eocene and
- While it was around it would have provided a connection between Greenland and
Doggerland. The latter has also disappeared, but beneath the waters of the North Sea.

This question was crossed and bridged by Phoenix Rising's pollucci19.

Answer: Ilulissat Icefjord

Ilulissat Icefjord is a channel in western Greenland through which one of the most productive and fastest moving glaciers in the world calves off into the sea. The Ilulissat or Jakobshavn Glacier (Sermeq Kujalleq in Greenlandic) produces roughly 10% (around 35 billion tonnes annually) of Greenland's icebergs. The Arctic Hotel in Ilulissat offers accommodation in aluminium igloos with incredible views overlooking the fjord.

Kujataa and Aasivissuit - Nipisat were Greenland's second and third UNESCO sites, inscribed in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Vatnajökull National Park is a UNESCO site in Iceland.

This question was channelled by Phoenix Rising team member JCSon

Answer: Length

Many canyons, including Arizona's Grand Canyon (445.8 kilometres/277 miles long) and Tibet's Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon (504.6 kilometres/313.5 miles long), are deeper than the one in Greenland, but Greenland's is longer at 750 kilometres (466 miles). The canyon is underneath the Greenland ice sheet and was discovered by scientists using ice-penetrating radar. It runs from the central region of the island northward into the Arctic Ocean, to the fjord of the Petermann Glacier in the northwest of the country. The base is below sea level. Jonathan Bamber, a geographer at University of Bristol, stated, "The distinctive V-shaped walls and flat bottom suggests water carved the buried valley, not ice."

Phoenix Rising team member lg549 could have written more in depth or at length about this, but decided to keep it short and sweet.

Answer: Swimming

Greenland is a place of extremes so it is not unusual that it would also host extreme events such as this Adventure Race, which is seen as Greenland's version of the "Iron Man" event. However, swimming, for any extended length of time here is far too extreme and so water crossings are done by kayak.

The event is conducted in the southern regions of Greenland and has been run (pun not intended) in September since 2001. The event starts with a run on day one. It is only a twenty kilometre (twelve and a half mile) run... but, you're running over glaciers and end by crossing a river of meltwater. Oh, I forgot to mention, you may have to do some rappelling on this section. On the second day you're mountain biking. This course is fifty kilometres (thirty miles) in length but it is certain to test even the best of mountain bikes. To this point you have had it easy. Day three you're running a little bit more than a marathon, approximately forty three kilometres (twenty seven miles) at elevations of a thousand metres (3,300 feet), finishing at the town of Narsaq. Day four you are kayaking through the fjords on your way to the town of Qaqortoq but you will not be in the water all the way as the course will require you to haul your kayak over sections of land before you reach the finish. On the fifth day you have a leisurely jog of thirty kilometres (nineteen miles) to get yourself to the finish line.

After writing this question, Phoenix Rising's pollucci19 became a born-again couch potato.

Answer: Peary Land

Peary Land is named after Robert E. Peary who first explored the area in the 1890s. With little to no precipitation it is not covered by glaciers and is instead bare land. Although the area is currently uninhabited, historically it has been inhabited in the past when climatic conditions were warmer. It was inhabited by Paleo-Eskimos from 2400 to 2000 BC and again in 800 to 200 BC. It was also inhabited by the Thule culture from 1300 AD. Peary Land is home to the northernmost point of Greenland, Cape Morris Jesup. In 1993 huge zinc and lead deposits were discovered in the region. The zinc deposits are considered the largest unexploited deposits in the world. Plans are currently being developed to mine these deposits.

This question was explored in frigid conditions by Phoenix Rising member tazman6619.

Answer: A wedding

Icelanders Thorsteinn Olafsson and Sigridr Bjornsdottir were married in the Hvalsey Catholic church in 1408; mention of the church itself is made in several late medieval documents, noting it was one of a dozen or so parish churches in the area that was then known as 'Eystribygð', (Eastern Settlement). The notation regarding the wedding is the last-known written record in Greenlandic Norse.

The Hvalsey church ruin is the site of Greenland's largest, best-preserved Norse architecture. It stands in the precinct of a Norse farmstead of a similar era, and is made from ashlar blocks with a mortar made from crushed local seashells. A World Heritage listing application was made in 2017. While some restoration of the existing ruin (and there's not much of it!) has been made, the intention is not to rebuild but merely to prevent further degradation of the building. It is thought that the land on which the church stands was part of a claim of Thorkell Farserk, a relative of Erik the Red.

This question was built into the quiz by Phoenix Rising member VegemiteKid.

Answer: It was once connected to the mainland

Uunartoq Qeqertaq is called Warming Island in English. It is shaped like the letter "W". As recently as 2002, the island was still connected to the Liverpool Land peninsula by glacial ice. Uunartoq Qeqertaq was only recognised as an island in 2005. It is thought that global warming severed the glacial ice connection to the mainland. However, there was contention that Uunartoq Qeqertaq was not made an island by global warming, with aerial photography from the 1950s by Ernst Hofer cited as evidence. This theory has been countered by arguments that aerial maps from the 1950s were inaccurate and the discrepancies were consistent with aerial views that were obscured by fog, accounting for the invisibility of the ice bridge in Hofer's photographs.

This question was linked to the quiz by Phoenix Rising team member purelyqing.

Answer: Wood

This Lutheran cathedral's construction began in 1848 and was completed a year later. The construction was of a kind called "half timbering" which is basically a timber frame created for soapstone and talc. Eventually the exterior of the building was panelled with red wood and a decision was made to do likewise on the building's interior, except with white wood.

Consecrated in 1849, it is the usual gathering place for the city's National Day celebrations.

We asked Phoenix Rising's pollucci19 to write this question with the proviso he did not include his wooden horse joke.