Kangilinnguit

Kangilinnguit
Grønnedal
Fjord icefloes, view from Kangilinnguit
Kangilinnguit
Location within Greenland
Coordinates: 61°14′00″N 48°05′55″W / 61.23333°N 48.09861°W / 61.23333; -48.09861Coordinates: 61°14′00″N 48°05′55″W / 61.23333°N 48.09861°W / 61.23333; -48.09861
State  Kingdom of Denmark
Constituent country  Greenland
Municipality Sermersooq
Population (2010)
 • Total 160
Time zone UTC-03
Postal Code 3905 Nuussuaq
Kangilinnguit Heliport
Summary
Airport type Military
Elevation AMSL 95 ft / 29 m
Helipads
Number Length Surface
m ft
1 45 × 40 147 × 131 Asphalt
Kangilinnguit, 1977.

Kangilinnguit or Kangilínguit, formerly Grønnedal Greenlandic pronunciation: [kɑɲɪlɪɲːuɪ̯t̚], is a settlement and location of a former naval base in Greenland's Sermersooq municipality, located at the mouth of Arsuk Fjord[1] in southwestern Greenland. The settlement had 160 inhabitants in 2010,[2] most of whom are Danish Navy personnel, attached to Island Command Greenland headquarters.[3] A road – roughly 5 kilometres (3 miles) long – between Kangilinnguit and Ivittuut make them the only towns in Greenland connected by roads. It was the only populous settlement within the former Ivittuut Municipality.

For the former U.S. Naval Operating Facility there, see Bluie West Seven.

History

Kangilinnguit was founded as "Green Valley" by the United States Navy during the Second World War to protect the highly strategic cryolite quarry in the former settlement of Ivittuut. The U.S. Navy turned the base over to the Danish Navy in August 1951. During the early years of the Cold War, the base was used by anti-submarine warfare ships of NATO, which tracked Soviet Navy submarines in the North Atlantic.

Since at least the mid-1990s, the Danish Navy has proposed saving money on the headquarters staff of Island Command Greenland out of isolated Grønnedal by relocating most of the 65 members either to the Greenlandic capital at Nuuk or bringing them back to Aarhus in Jutland. However, the Greenlandic government has successfully lobbied to keep the command intact in order to boost the local economy.

Under the terms of the "2010-2014 Danish Defense Agreement" approved by the Danish parliament on 24 June 2009, the Greenland Command absorbed the (nearly defunct) Faroe Island Command. The combined command was placed in Nuuk under the name of "Arctic Command". As a result, in 2012, Kangilinnguit was closed and residual military functions moved to Nuuk (Godthaab), the capital of Greenland.

Population

Kangilinnguit population dynamics
Kangilinnguit population growth dynamics in the last two decades. Source: Statistics Greenland[4]

References

  1. ↑ "Greenland and the Arctic". By Etain O'Carroll and Mark Elliott. Lonely Planet 2005. ISBN 1-74059-095-3.
  2. ↑ Statistics Greenland Archived 2011-08-12 at the Wayback Machine. (in Danish)
  3. ↑ Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation Archived 2007-06-06 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ Statistics Greenland Archived 2011-08-12 at the Wayback Machine.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.