Meteorite Island

Meteorite Island (Danish: Meteorit Ø) is an island in Baffin Bay, in Avannaata municipality, off NW Greenland.^[1]

Meteorite Island

Native name: Savigsivik Meteorit Ø (Danish)
Meteorite Island
Geography
Location	Baffin Bay, Greenland
Coordinates	76.0197°N 65.1149°W / 76.0197; -65.1149
Administration
Greenland
Municipality	Avannaata
Demographics
Population	uninhabited

The Cape York Meteorite fell thousands of years ago on the southern shore of this island.^[2]

Geography

Meteorite Island is quite barren and desolate. It lies off the shore of Meteor Bay and is the largest of the group part of a small chain of coastal islands formed by Meteorite Island, Salve Island, George Island, Bushnan Island and a small islet. This chain of islands is located between Cape York and Cape Melville.^[3]

The Inuit village of Savissivik is located at the southwestern end of Meteorite Island.^[4] The settlement has a heliport, Savissivik Heliport and in 2010 it had 66 inhabitants.^[5] In the Greenlandic language, the name of the settlement Savissivik means 'place of meteorite iron' (savik = iron/knife),^[6] alluding to the numerous meteorites from 10,000 years ago that have been found in the area.^[7] The meteorite is estimated to have weighed 100 tonnes before it exploded.^[7] The iron from the meteorite attracted migrating Inuit from Arctic Canada.^[7]

19th century photograph of Meteorite Island

Location of Meteorite Island

See also

• List of islands of Greenland