The Ice Fjord

September 15 and 16

Illulissat, the Ice Fjord

Now that we are back below the 70th parallel we are in the “Northern Lights zone”. Last night (September 14) about midnight, the Lights appeared once again. We threw on some clothes (it was below freezing and breezy out on deck) to enjoy the show. 

We spent the morning and early afternoon of the 15th at Illulissat, the third largest town in Greenland (population about 6,000 with an equal number of sled dogs). Its name means “iceberg” in the local language. There have been Inuit settlements here for over 3,000 years. About a mile come town, Sermermiut was the largest Inuit settlement in Greenland. 

The Illulissat Ice Fjord runs west for 25 miles from the edge of the Greenland Ice Sheet to Disko Bay. At the eastern end of the fjord is the Jalobshavn Isbrae glacier, the most productive in the northern hemisphere. The glacier flows an average of 80-100 feet per day (!) and spits out an estimated 20 billion tons of icebergs a year. The fjord is a World Heritage Site and the most popular tourist destination in Greenland. The fjord is full of icebergs of all sizes. Near the mouth of the fiord, enormous icebergs “bottom out” in a shallow area, which creates something of a wall, trapping smaller ones behind them. These large icebergs need to melt down or break up some before they can exit the fjord. The harbor is also full of icebergs, which gave our crew quite a slalom course as we arrived this morning. 

We took a 2.5 mile hike to the fjord. It included walking down a boardwalk to viewing areas above the fjord and then along the fjord and across the tundra to make a loop. The sun was warm and the sea calm, a lovely morning.

Science corner: these National Geographic / Lindblad trips are blessed with talented young naturalists with training and experience in geology, physiology, ornithology, geography and history. We benefit from their insights both when we are on land and in lectures during sea days. In addition, Lindblad offers the opportunity for young scientists to join a trip that aligns with their research area. This trip we have been joined by a young assistant professor whose research area is the Greenland Ice Sheet, including models and data collection on ice melting, ocean characteristics and sea level rise. He is part of a larger effort to deploy thousands of remote temperature and salinity sensors in the world’s oceans. He deployed another such unit during one of our zodiac cruises, and has been taking data nearly every day with a handheld device. It was a joy to hear about his work. 

In the evening, we were entertained by the ship’s hotel staff. Each group (housekeeping, kitchen, servers, etc) had their own act. All were very enjoyable and a few were hilarious. There was also a small rock band named the “Shackle-tunes” that played songs from a wide range of genres and decades. 

On Tuesday (September 16) we had a final hike on the shores of Itivdlip Ilua fjord. We have left ice and icebergs behind us. We enjoyed picking lowbush blueberries and crow berries as a hiking snack, and marveled at the diversity of lichens, mosses, heathers and mushrooms in the spongy trifle beneath our feet. We also studied the skulls of musk ox and caribou on the hillside, and watched an Arctic hare high up on a rocky slope above us. 

The balance of the day was spent cruising south to arrive in Nuuk before dawn tomorrow. The highlight for tonight was the guest photo slide show. Each guest was allowed to contribute four photos. Culling down to that number after a long trip was a real challenge! 

Pictured: northern lights with the stars shining through, deploying a sensor, blueberries, the breadth of the ice fjord, a “floating island” optical illusion