Upernavik Archipelago
coastal archipelago in Greenland
Upernavik Archipelago is a vast coastal archipelago in the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland, off the shores of northeastern Baffin Bay. The archipelago extends from the northwestern coast of Sigguup Nunaa peninsula in the south at approximately 71°50′N 56°00′W to the southern end of Melville Bay (Greenlandic: Qimusseriarsuaq) in the north at approximately 74°50′N 57°30′W.
History
The archipelago belongs to the earliest-settled areas of Greenland, the first migrants arriving approximately 2,000 BCE. All southbound migrations of the Inuit passed through the area, leaving behind a trail of archeological sites. The early Saqqaq culture diminished in importance around 1,000 BCE, followed by the migrants of Dorset culture, who spread alongside the coast of Baffin Bay, being in turn displaced by the Thule people in the 13th and 14th centuries. The area has been continuously inhabited since then.
Today the Upernavik Archipelago is sparsely populated, despite the relatively high number of settlements scattered across its entire length. All but one of these settlements are located on the islands. Upernavik town is the largest settlement with 1,129 inhabitants as of 2010, formally founded in 1772 by the Danes during the colonization era.
Geography
The coastline of Greenland is deeply indented in this region, markedly different from that of the Nuussuaq Basin of Uummannaq Fjord and Nuussuaq Peninsula. In the northern part of the archipelago, the coastal mountains disappear altogether, with the Greenland ice sheet (Greenlandic: Sermersuaq) reaching the sea level across nearly the entire length of the perennially frozen Melville Bay.
Islands
Nutaarmiut Island is the largest in the archipelago, followed by Maniitsoq and Qeqertaq.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Upernavik Archipelago” as coastal archipelago in Greenland. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2860209. Authority coordinates are 73.000, -56.000. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2010 and 1772.
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This entry incorporates text from “Upernavik Archipelago” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.