Greenland Geography - 2024

Location

Northern North America, island between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean, northeast of Canada

Geographic coordinates

72 00 N, 40 00 W

Map references

Arctic Region

Area

total: 2,166,086 sq km

land: 2,166,086 sq km (approximately 1,710,000 sq km ice-covered)

Area - comparative

slightly more than three times the size of Texas

Land boundaries

total: 0 km

Coastline

44,087 km

Maritime claims

territorial sea: 3 nm

continental shelf: 200 nm or agreed boundaries or median line

exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm or agreed boundaries or median line

Climate

arctic to subarctic; cool summers, cold winters

Terrain

flat to gradually sloping icecap covers all but a narrow, mountainous, barren, rocky coast

Elevation

highest point: Gunnbjorn Fjeld 3,694 m

lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m

mean elevation: 1,792 m

Natural resources

coal, iron ore, lead, zinc, molybdenum, diamonds, gold, platinum, niobium, tantalite, uranium, fish, seals, whales, hydropower, possible oil and gas

Land use

agricultural land: 0.6% (2018 est.)

arable land: 0% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 0% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 0.6% (2018 est.)

forest: 0% (2018 est.)

other: 99.4% (2018 est.)

Irrigated land

N/A

Population distribution

settlement concentrated on the southwest shoreline, with limited settlements scattered along the remaining coast; interior is uninhabited

Natural hazards

continuous permafrost over northern two-thirds of the island

Geography - note

dominates North Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe; sparse population confined to small settlements along coast; close to one-quarter of the population lives in the capital, Nuuk; world's second largest ice sheet after that of Antarctica covering an area of 1.71 million sq km (660,000 sq mi) or about 79% of the island, and containing 2.85 million cu km (684 thousand cu mi) of ice (this is almost 7% of all of the world's fresh water); if all this ice were converted to liquid water, one estimate is that it would be sufficient to raise the height of the world's oceans by 7.2 m (24 ft)