Glacial rock flour and the preservation of Greenland fossil fish

Deborah Painter (USA) The island of Greenland is now an independent nation called Kalaallit Nunaat in the language of the native-born people. Almost totally covered in ice, the world’s largest island can be compared to a bowl of ice having a rim of ice-free hills and mountains. The southern tip supports agriculture in the form of small sheep farms and cultivation of kale, strawberries and other crops, mostly for local consumption, but fish and allied products reign, accounting for about 89% of exports. To anyone other than someone who calls this land home, much of Greenland might seem remote and perhaps forbidding. My father, the late Floyd Painter, might have thought the same about the great island before he was a master sergeant stationed there for a year. Yes, it was very cold and dark for part of the year, but conversations with him about his time there revealed that he actually had an interesting time in the land of the Midnight Sun. My late father served in the US Navy and Army before his careers as an archaeologist and marine engineer. When in his early thirties, his Army career took him to Camp Lloyd on Michigan Bay, a part of the North Fork of Sondrestrom Fjord (“Deep Stream Fjord” in Danish). It is located 670 38’ North, 500 43.33’ West, HO Chart 5796. Sondrestrom Fjord now appears on maps as Kangerlussuaq (pronounced “kanger-loo-soo-ack”) and is located along the west-central coast. It is the world’s longest fjord. Camp Lloyd, the … Read More