We originally had a different topic planned for this week's #geoweirdness thread, but the global discussion has turned to Greenland ๐ฌ๐ฑ, so let's go with it.
Join us as we consider the geographic oddities of the world's northernmost territory.
1/
2/ As we covered in our #geoweirdness thread about Denmark ๐ฉ๐ฐ,
Greenland ๐ฌ๐ฑ is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.
It has a population of only 50,000
The local government is responsible for local matters, while Denmark is
responsible for foreign policy and defence. The currency is the Danish Kroner.
3/ Denmark ๐ฉ๐ฐ is part of the European Union ๐ช๐บ, but Greenland ๐ฌ๐ฑ is not, having left the European Economic Community (the EU's predecessor) in 1985. Nevertheless, because they are citizens of the Danish Realm, Greenlandic citizens have EU citizenship.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_and_the_European_Union
As with most of the 32 "special territories of members of the European Economic Area", it's complicated.
4/ Greenland ๐ฌ๐ฑ is big, but probably not as big as you think.
Most map projections, including the widely used Mercator projection, distort the size of land near the poles. As a result Greenland looks much bigger than it actually is.
A great tool for visually comparing the true size of countries is ...
thetruesize.com
As this Dymaxion projection shows Greenland is "only" the 11th largest country.
5/ In 2022 came the exciting geographic news of the new Canada ๐จ๐ฆ / Greenland ๐ฌ๐ฑ land border, when it was agreed to divide remote, uninhabited Hans Island.
This marked the end of the long-running and delightful "Whiskey War" in which the two sides left bottles of alcohol ๐พ for each other while taking down the other side's flag.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisky_War
6/ While the dispute over Hans Island was not so serious, the Arctic is
increasingly becoming an area of strategic importance.
Climate change means melting ice which means the Northwest Passage, the sea route between Atlantic and Pacific, is now occasionally passable.
Greenland ๐ฌ๐ฑ will sit on a key trade route.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Passage#International_waters_dispute
Canada ๐จ๐ฆ claims these to be internal waters, while most other countries say it is an international strait.
7/ Denmark ๐ฉ๐ฐ is a founding member of NATO, and Greenland ๐ฌ๐ฑ played a key role in the cold war, as part of the GIUK Gap (Greenland, Iceland ๐ฎ๐ธ, United Kingdom ๐ฌ๐ง) a naval choke point, critical for the containment of the Soviet Union's naval forces during the cold war.
8/ It was during the Cold War that a US ๐บ๐ธ military facility, Thule Air Base, was established in the far north of Greenland ๐ฌ๐ฑ.
It is the site of the world's northernmost deep water port 1,210 km north of the Arctic Circle, and a territorial concession granted to the United States in perpetuity. In 2020 it was transferred to the US Space Force and renamed Pituffik Space Base ๐
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pituffik_Space_Base
9/ There is some precedent for Denmark ๐ฉ๐ฐ selling territory to the US ๐บ๐ธ
In 1916 Denmark sold "the Danish West Indies" to the US, today they are known as the US Virgin Islands ๐ป๐ฎ
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_the_Danish_West_Indies
As part of the deal, the US gave up any claims to Greenland ๐ฌ๐ฑ
10/ We hope you enjoyed our look at ๐ฌ๐ฑ Greenlandic #geoweirdness
What did we miss?
You may also enjoy our threads about
๐ฉ๐ฐ Denmark https://en.osm.town/@opencage/110165216804473987
or
๐จ๐ฆ Canada https://en.osm.town/@opencage/109970277198086308
We have many more threads about specific countries, border disputes, geocoding, etc listed on our blog. Enjoy and thanks for sharing.
@opencage I see you have a blog post about enclaves, but have you done a post about pene-enclaves?
(Parts of a country only accessible via another country)
Scotland has a village only reachable from England, likewise Norway and Sweden ๐ I think Northern Ireland and Eire too.
@stevefaeembra but of course, darling ...
We often mention pene-enclaves:
https://en.osm.town/@opencage/110445594353583060
Attached: 1 image 6/ Austria ๐ฆ๐น doesn't have any true exclaves, but it does have the pene-exclave of Kleinwalsertal - a valley that can only be reached via Germany ๐ฉ๐ช due to the steep alps. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleinwalsertal We covered it a few months back in our #geoweirdness thread about enclaves and exclaves https://en.osm.town/@opencage/109812532288025044
@stevefaeembra @opencage Sharing my fave - Minnesotaโs Angle.
@brianrepko @stevefaeembra yes! Covered in our thread about the 50 US states:
Attached: 2 images 24/ Minnesota, MN Minnesotaโs "Northwest Angle" is a pene-exclaveโa small part of the state accessible by land only through Canada ๐จ๐ฆ This unique feature resulted from 18th-century map errors during treaty negotiations. Itโs the only part of the US aside Alaska which is above the 49th parallel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Angle https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=10/49.1049/-94.9294 #geoweirdness
You may enjoy our thread about Switzerland ๐จ๐ญ
@opencage @stevefaeembra thanks, it's a fascinating, if somewhat perplexing for us non-Swiss, country.
Samnaun is a duty-free enclave, you can get to it on skis down the "Smugglers run" from the Austrian ski resort of Ischgl.
One issue that UK skiers need to watch out for is that near the border mobiles can switch from a Austrian to a Swiss mast. Many UK roaming packages include the EU but don't include Switzerland.
You might also soon need to add something about the change in the border between Switzerland and Italy on the Matterhorn glacier near Testa Grigia. I gather the change has been ratified by the Swiss but not yet agreed by Italy. The reason is glacial melt moving the ridge line between the two watersheds. The ridge line define the border.
There's also some weirdness regarding #timezones in ๐ฌ๐ฑ.
(The timezones map is full of weirdness IMHO)
Attached: 1 image โฐ Time is a funny thing! For starters, how are we already nearly in August? But more importantly, when examined closely, time reveals several excellent #geoweirdness examples. In this week's thread, weโll look at some of the weirdest timezone quirks from around the world. To get us started hereโs a map of the world as segmented by the tz database. 1/
@drmikepj a relevant toot on this topic from our thread about US states regarding Juneau, Alaska, which is also not reachable by road:
Attached: 2 images 2/ Alaska, AK Vast, wild and cold, Alaska is also, to put it crudely, absolutely huge. The great Aleutian Arc archipelago that spans outwards of the Gulf of Alaska to the Bering Sea crosses the 180ยฐ meridian, and means that Alaska is the northernmost, westernmost, and easternmost state all at once! The state capital, Juneau, isn't reachable by road, due to surrounding mountains. As the locals say "only three ways to arrive in Juneau: plane, boat, or birth canal" #geoweirdness
OpenCage ๐๐
stevefaeembra
Brian Repko
MarjorieR
Quincy
Simon dฤ Gulielmล ๐ง
Pozorvlak
Debora Weber-Wulff
Mike Prior-Jones
Jim Easterbrook
Einfach Nein 