What are the similarities and differences between Greenland and Iceland?

Greenland: Kalaallit Nunaat) is mostly located in Greenland, the largest island in the world, with an area of 2 166086 square kilometers, and about 8 1% is covered with ice and snow. The name Greenland means "green land". It was once an overseas territory of the Kingdom of Denmark and an autonomous institution within the Kingdom. After the referendum in 2008, it was decided to gradually move towards independence, and in 2009 it was formally reorganized into a transitional regime with independent internal affairs, but foreign affairs, national defense and finance were still entrusted to Denmark.

Most of Greenland is located in the Arctic Circle with a cold climate. Across the strait from Canada and Iceland.

history

Main Project: History of Greenland

It is unknown when the original inhabitants of Greenland came here and why they chose such a desolate place to live. When Icelandic colonists came here in 982, they found it uninhabited. At the southernmost tip of the island, Icelanders established three strongholds, which they persisted in for the next few centuries.

The name Greenland is exactly what these Scandinavians chose. According to the Nordic epic sagar, Eric the Red Beard was expelled from Iceland for murder. Eric's family and their slaves sailed to the northwest to explore the legendary land. When he settled on the island, he named it Greenland (meaning "green land") to attract more immigrants. At least the fjord at the southern end of the island is still green. His brilliant plan succeeded, and Nordic immigrants could live in harmony with the new Inuit. /kloc-in the 0/2nd century, a Catholic parish was even established in Greenland. 1386, Greenland officially belonged to Norway and became the territory of the three Nordic countries Kalmar Union. After the disintegration of the alliance, Greenland was handed over to the Danish-Norwegian monarchy.

After more than 500 years of persistence, Nordic settlements suddenly disappeared in the15th century, probably due to the general food shortage caused by the Little Ice Age. Later, the remains of residents in this period all showed malnutrition.

18 14 years, according to the Kiel Treaty, Norway was ceded to Sweden by Denmark, and Denmark recovered the sovereignty of Greenland.

193 1 year, Norway occupied the then uninhabited eastern part of Greenland, claiming that it was ownerless and claimed sovereignty over it. 1933, Denmark and Norway agreed to submit this dispute to the Permanent Court of International Justice under the League of Nations for arbitration. According to the arbitration results, Denmark gained full sovereignty over Greenland.

Eric with a red beard from Norway is the earliest recorded person who developed Greenland. He named the island Greenland. On the early maps, Greenland was also marked with the name of Gruntland (meaning Land of the Earth). Is Gollum Gr? The falsetto of n, or vice versa, is still unknown.

During World War II,1On April 9, 940, Nazi Germany occupied Denmark, and Greenland was cut off from Denmark. Greenland successfully traded with the United States and Canada by mining cryolite mine in Wiegert, Iraq, and obtained necessary commodities. This situation continued until the end of the war.

During the Second World War, there were also small-scale battles in this area. 1943, a Danish soldier was killed in this area, and a year later, a German soldier was also killed there.

[Editor] Politics

In the seaside town of Ittoqqortoormiit, the head of Greenland is the King of Denmark, which is now Margrethe II. The Danish government appointed a high commissioner (Rigsombudsmand) to represent the Danish king and government.

The Greenland Home Rule Parliament is elected by universal suffrage for a term of four years, with 365,438+0 seats. The head of the autonomous government, the Prime Minister of Greenland, is usually the leader of the parliamentary majority party.

Although Denmark is a member of the European Union, Greenland is not a part of the European Union.

Greenland held an autonomy referendum on June 25th, 2008 +065438+20081October 25th. The referendum was held in 80 towns and villages across the island, and the billing results were announced around midnight. The turnout rate was 7 1.96%, with 75.54% for autonomy and 23.57% against it. The referendum was passed by more than 75% of voters, which became the prelude to Greenland's 300-year independence from Denmark. After the referendum was passed, Greenland autonomous land came into effect on June 2, 2009, and became an independent organization under international law, managing internal affairs, justice and resource allocation and utilization on its own, but national defense, foreign affairs and finance were still temporarily entrusted to Denmark as a temporary stage in the process of complete independence.

[edit] geography

Main Project: Geography of Greenland

Torsu Kartak Fjord

Nuna Island in the west of Greenland is the largest island in the world, belonging to the mainland island, located in the northeast of North America, between the Arctic Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, facing the Canadian Arctic Islands across Baffin Bay and davis strait in the west, and facing Iceland across the Danish Strait in the east. Because of its huge area, Greenland is often called Greenland subcontinent. About four-fifths of the islands are in the Arctic Circle.

Greenland has the largest glacier area on the continent after Antarctica. The whole area is covered by ice sheets, and only the northernmost part of the island and the narrow strips on the east and west sides are exposed, because the air in these areas is extremely dry and it is difficult to form snow. Because the central area is covered with snow and ice for a long time, if the snow cap is removed, the central area will be lower than the island edge. The highest elevation to the east of the central part of the island is 3300 meters, and the elevation of the marginal area is about 1000 to 2000 meters. If all the ice and snow in Greenland melt, it will appear as an archipelago under the influence of glacier erosion.

From 1989 to 1993, climate researchers from Europe and the United States reached the summit of the Greenland ice sheet and drilled a pair of ice cores 2 miles (about 3.2 kilometers) long to study their chemical composition. The air in the ice core cannot remove the ice cap. The deeper the ice core air, the earlier the air composition. Studying its contents is helpful to discover the ancient northern hemisphere climate as far back as 100000 years ago. The result of the study is that the earth's climate, which is usually in a long-term stable climate, suddenly and quickly changes to another long-term stable climate. The climate of the North Atlantic is deeply influenced by the ocean currents along the northeast coast of Greenland.

* * * and Iceland (Icelandic: l? Ouerdi Island is an island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, located between Greenland and Britain, and its capital is Reykjavik. Geographically, Iceland is often regarded as a member of the five Nordic countries [1]. Today, Iceland is a highly developed country, with GDP per capita ranking fifth in the world [2] and human development index ranking first in the world (2006).

history

Main Project: History of Iceland

Before Scandinavians and Celts immigrated to Iceland in the 9th century and10th century, Iceland was the last uninhabited big island in the world except New Zealand. Iceland established the world's earliest parliament (Icelandic: Al? Ingi), although this parliament did not run for a long time. Some written evidence shows that Irish monks lived in Iceland before the arrival of northerners, but there is no archaeological evidence to prove this inference.

Iceland was independent for 300 years and was later ruled by Norway and Denmark. 18 14 Before Denmark and the United Kingdom of Norway were divided according to the Kiel Treaty, Iceland was a colony of the Norwegian king and later became a dependency of Denmark. 1874, the Danish government granted Iceland limited autonomy. 19 18, Denmark and Iceland signed a joint bill, and Denmark recognized the Kingdom of Iceland as a sovereign state attached to the Kingdom of Denmark. Since then, Iceland has further gained independence and sovereignty similar to that of a protectorate in internal affairs, while Denmark still retains power in foreign affairs and national defense. 1940 Nazi Germany occupied Denmark during World War II, and the Icelandic parliament announced that the Icelandic government had taken back the power of Iceland's foreign affairs from the Danish king. In the same year, Britain occupied Iceland, a neutral country, and the following year, American troops took over from the British and stationed on the island. The Danish king continued to rule legally until Iceland was established in 1944.

As a member of NATO, the Republic of China signed an agreement with the United States to defend Iceland in 1949. According to this agreement, the United States set up a military base in Lavich, Kiev, until the end of September 2006, when the United States unilaterally withdrew. So far, Iceland does not have its own army.

In the decades after the war, Iceland's economy relied on fishing, and because of this biological resource, there were several conflicts with neighboring countries, including the famous "Cod War" with Britain. In recent years, due to heavy industry investment, the economy has gradually diversified, aluminum smelting has developed, and the economic field has been liberalized and privatized.

Iceland became a member of the European Economic Area through the EEA, but never applied to join the European Union. On July 17, 2009, the Icelandic government formally submitted an application to Sweden, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, and the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium.

Parliamentary elections were held from 6 May to 2 May 2007. [3] In the ***63 seats, the Independent Party won 24 seats, the Social Democratic Alliance won 18 seats, the left-wing green movement won 9 seats, the Progressive Party won 8 seats, and the Icelandic Liberal Party won 4 seats. [4]

On April 25, 2009, after the collapse of the Coalition government of the Independent Party and the Progressive Party due to the financial crisis, the national election was held two years ahead of schedule. The Social Democratic Alliance, the Independent Party, the Left Green Party, the Progressive Party and the Civil Movement won a total of 63 parliamentary seats. Of the 63 elected members, 26 are women and 27 are newcomers. The Social Democratic Party and the left-wing Green Party of the provisional coalition government won 34 seats, accounting for a slim majority. The former largest party, the Independent Party, retreated to the second place, and the Liberal Party lost its parliamentary seat. Prime Minister of the new government: johanna Sijul Dardaud Tyre (female, Social Democratic Union), Foreign Minister: Osod Sigafi Ding Song (? Ssur Skarphé dinsson), Minister of Finance: Stan Grim? Steingrímur J. Sigfússon (Left-wing Green Party). However, how to get Iceland's economy out of the trough and predicament will be a huge challenge for the new Icelandic government.

[Editor] Politics

Main topic: Icelandic politics

Ahltin, Iceland, founded in 930, is the earliest parliament in the world. Now it has 63 members, who are elected by all the people every four years. The head of state is the president, whose term of office is four years. The head of government is the Prime Minister, who is appointed by the President and performs the administrative duties of the government together with the Cabinet. The national political system is biased towards social democracy.

[edit] geography

Volcanic lake on Vatnayokoulu glacier

Dettifoss, located in the northeast of Iceland, is the highest and fastest waterfall in Europe.

The sacred waterfall of winter sunset in Iceland: the geography of Iceland.

[Edit] location

It faces Greenland across the Danish Strait in the west, the Norwegian Sea in the east, the Greenland Sea in the north and the Atlantic Ocean in the south. It is a Nordic country with an area of 6.5438+0.03 million square kilometers.

[Editor] Geology and Geomorphology

Since the late Early Miocene, it has been formed by the accumulation of upper mantle materials spilled from the rift valley in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, belonging to a volcanic island. The rocks that make up Iceland are all volcanic rocks, and the most widely distributed are basalt, andesite, rhyolite and so on.

There are many volcanoes on the island, which are called "Polar Fire Island". There are 200 to 300 volcanoes and 40 to 50 active volcanoes. The main volcanoes are Laki Volcano, Huanadals Volcano, Haikela Volcano and catra Volcano. Volcanic activity in the southwest coast from 1963 to 1967 formed an island of about 2. 1 square kilometer. Iceland has the largest number of hot springs in the world. There are about 250 alkaline hot springs on the island, and the largest hot spring can produce 200 liters of spring water per second.

From the basic topography, Iceland is a bowl-shaped highland, surrounded by coastal mountains and with a plateau in the middle. Most of them are platforms, and the height of the platforms is between 400 and 800 meters. Individual peaks can reach 1.300 to 1.700 meters. The highest peak in Iceland is Mount Huanada Snook (265,438+0,654,38+0.9 meters). The lowland area is very small, and there are marine plains and ice water alluvial plains in the west and southwest, accounting for about 7% of the whole island area. The coastline without glaciers is irregular, with many fjords and bays. Other coastal areas are mainly beaches, and sandbars off the coast form lagoons.

Geothermal resources are abundant and hot springs are widely distributed.

[Editor] Climate

Main Project: Climate in Iceland

Located at high latitude, the south belongs to temperate maritime climate and the north belongs to tundra climate.

Influenced by the North Atlantic warm current, it mainly flows out from its south, and there is a branch around its west and north. Therefore, although it is located near the Arctic Circle, the temperature in winter is not low, and the temperature in summer is between 7 and 12 degrees Celsius.

Located near the center of low pressure in Iceland, the weather is changeable. Cyclones have brought abundant precipitation to Iceland. The annual average precipitation in southwest and west is between 1000 ~ 2000mm, and it is less in north and northeast, which is 400 ~ 600 mm. Rain and snow weather may occur in any season.

Hydrology [edit]

Main projects: hydrology in Iceland

Rivers radiate from the central plateau. The main rivers are: Fyodlesme Glacier, etc.

Iceland is not only the center of the Quaternary ice sheet, but also modern glaciers are distributed on the plateau, mainly shield-shaped ice cap glaciers and a few ice bucket glaciers, accounting for 1 1.5% of the total island area. There are Vatna Ice Sheet, Lange Ice Sheet, Hoves Ice Sheet and Mida Glacier. Among them, the Vatna ice sheet covers an area of 8,450 square kilometers and its thickness is between several hundred meters and 2 kilometers. It is the largest glacier in the world except Antarctica and Greenland.

[edit] vegetation

Tundra is widely distributed, with grassland area accounting for 24%, and animal husbandry is relatively developed. The forest area accounts for about 65,438+0.37%, which is distributed in the leeward and sunny slopes and valleys, mainly birch shrubs. In recent decades, many cold-resistant conifers and cypresses have been introduced from Europe and America and grow well.

Arctic region or Arctic place (sometimes directly referred to by the word "North Pole") refers to the area around the North Pole of the earth, which together with the South Pole constitutes the cold zone of the earth. The Arctic region includes the whole Arctic Ocean and parts of Greenland (Danish territory), Canada, Alaska, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland.

Definition of the Arctic region

There are many definitions of Arctic customs. It is generally believed that the Arctic lies to the north of the Arctic Circle (66 33' N), which is characterized by extreme day and night. Based on climatic and ecological factors, the Arctic region can also be defined as the region north of the July 10℃ isotherm, which roughly corresponds to the Arctic tree line [6]. Culturally speaking, the Arctic region is wider, including the activities of Arctic aborigines. In addition, sociology and political science define the Arctic region as the northern territory of eight Arctic countries, even Lapland province in Finland, which belongs to the sub-Arctic region geographically.

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