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Greenland is the largest island in the world. Owing to its situation in the north, where the Atlantic meets the Arctic Ocean, cold ocean currents principally surround Greenland, so the coasts are constantly being cooled. This, together with the radiation of cold from the inland ice gives Greenland its Arctic climate.
The ice-sheet or inland ice covers 1,833,900 sq.km - equal to 85% of Greenland's total area and extending 2,500 km north- south and up to 1,000 km east-west. At the center, the ice is anything up to 3 km thick and represents 10% of the world's total fresh-water reserves.
Greenland's geological history is the oldest in the world. Greenland is the site of the oldest rocks ever dated (3,700 million years). By way of comparison, the earth is reckoned to be 4,600 million years old.
The glaciers of the ice age have shaped Greenland topology but in several locations traces of geological processes have been found, such as earthquakes, formation of mountain ranges and volcanic activity.
No wonder, therefore, that Greenland is an eldorado for geology buffs.
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