The area is named after Robert E. Peary, who first explored it during his expedition of 1891 to 1892. Originally, Peary Land was believed to be an island, separated from the main island by the so-called Peary Channel, an assumed connection between Nordenskiöld Fjord and Independence Fjord which in fact did not exist.[2]Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen (1872-1907), the ill-fated leader of the Denmark expedition, searched in vain for the Peary Channel in 1907 and was misled to his death by existing maps.[3]Knud Rasmussen's First Thule Expedition confirmed in 1912 that Peary Land is a peninsula. There are more than 200 kilometers of dry land up to 1500 meters high between Nordenskiöld Fjord and Independence Fjord.
Research and mining
There are two Arctic research stations on Jørgen Brønlund Fjord, Brønlundhus (erected in 1948) and Cape Harald Moltke (erected in 1972). Both stations were built on the initiative of Eigil Knuth and have been the basis for many scientific expeditions. Cape Harald Moltke station was built later in connection with use of the natural runway east of Jørgen Brønlund Fjord mouth.[4] The stations are located 10 km from each other on either side of the fjord, with Brønlundhus on the western side, and communication between them in summer is by boat, depending on ice conditions. Since the death of Eigil Knuth, the stations have been administered by Peary Land Foundation. Today, Brønlundhus can be characterised as a museum, with a collection of artefacts from polar explorations.
In 1993 zinc and lead deposits were discovered in the Citronen Fjord.[5] They are deemed the largest yet unexploited zinc deposits in the world, and the exploitation of the Citronen mine is in the preparation phase.[6] Important zinc and barium deposits have also been found at Navarana Fjord.[7]
Peary Land is not part of any municipality but belongs to the Northeast Greenland National Park. The size of the region is about 375 kilometres (233 mi) from east to west and 200 kilometres (124 mi) from north to south, with an estimated area of 57,000 square kilometres (22,008 sq mi). It is only a bit more than 700 kilometres (435 mi) south of the North Pole.
Peary Land is not covered by an ice cap because the air is too dry to produce snow. Precipitation levels are so low (only about 25 millimetres (1 in) per year) that most of its surface is polar desert. Located mostly north of the 82°N parallel, it contains the most northerly ice-free region of the world, mostly in Southern Peary Land (such as Melville Land and Herlufsholm Strand) on the northern side of Independence Fjord. It was not covered by glaciers during the most recent ice age. However, in its western part, there is the Hans Tausen Ice Cap with ice at least 344 metres (1,129 ft) thick.
Mountains
Peary Land is mountainous; the highest elevation is Helvetia Tinde reaching up to 1,929 m (6,329 ft) in the heavily glaciated and little-explored Roosevelt Range, the northernmost mountain range in the world.[8] The 1,737 m (5,699 ft) high Wistar Bjerg in the Nordkrone[9] and the 1,433 m (4,701 ft) high Stjernebannertinde, highest point of the H.H. Benedict Range (a subrange of the Roosevelt Range),[10][11]
