This 1 hour flight came in 3 parts:
This third and last page takes us to the western shore.
So, we are now at the edge of the ice sheet on its western side, the boundary between ice and snow-covered rock is obvious here, and we get our first glimpses of the Atlantic fjords on the west side in these two shots:
That the above phot's lower ice flow is the start of a giant glacier becomes obvious in another few minutes. Two large glaciers ride over rock and the streams that flow from their ends carry scraped rock down into canyons:
Note the grey rock dust in the canyons and the fresh-water lakes: this is pretty warm considering how much ice there is all around. That rock dust will make a good soil, eventually, unless it is whaed into the ocean and becomes sediment instead.
At this point I pointed the camera back for a last look at the ice-sheet edge and the deeply incised granitic rock beow where the effects of other glaciers shoving across and plucking and scraping this rock are very evident. I do not recall seeing this much exposed rock last time I flew over here, but am in no position to make any kind of meaningful measurement from two sets of photos from different locations and different times of year.
So, let's follow the outflow channel from that large glacier to the sea, one step at a time:
Now it makes an abrupt northward turn and joins another flow channel no doubt fed by another giant glacier:
Now we are very close to the west coast, and over the next few photos we will say goodbye to this interesting, but always cold-looking, place once again:
A very few minutes later we crossed over a very dense layer of clouds, and never saw land again until we made a left turn into Washington state!
This 1 hour flight came in 3 parts:
This third and last page takes us to the western shore.
And this link takes you back to my previous pages on Greenland from the air.
