Melville Bay
bay in Avannaata, Greenland
Melville Bay (Greenlandic: Qimusseriarsuaq; Danish: Melville Bugt), is a large bay off the coast of northwestern Greenland. Located to the north of the Upernavik Archipelago, it opens to the south-west into Baffin Bay. Its Kalaallisut name, Qimusseriarsuaq, means "the great dog sledding place".
The bay was named after Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville, (1771 - 1851) head of the Admiralty.
Geography
Melville Bay is delimited by Cape York in the northeast and Wilcox Head, the western promontory on Kiatassuaq Island in the south.
Some islands of the Upernavik Archipelago are in the Melville Bay area, such as Kiatassuaq Island, Kullorsuaq Island, Saarlia Island and Saqqarlersuaq Island. Melville Bay is free of fast ice between mid August and the end of September on average. Navigation is dangerous as there are numerous icebergs in the bay throughout the year.
History
In the 19th century Melville Bay was an important place for whaling fleets.
See also
Cape York (Greenland)
Wandel Land
References
External links
Media related to Melville Bay at Wikimedia Commons
Satellite image.
The public source identifies “Melville Bay” as bay in Avannaata, Greenland. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Melville, Avannaata and Greenland.
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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 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2336534. Authority coordinates are 75.750, -61.000. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1771 and 1851.
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This entry incorporates text from “Melville Bay” 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.