| 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 extremes | 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 | NA |
| 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) |
Source: CIA World Factbook
This page was last updated on September 18, 2021
