Cape York

Cape York

Cape York is on Greenland's northwest coast, in the northern part of Baffin Bay. It marks the 310 km northwestern end of Melville Bay, the other end being usually defined as Wilcox Head, the western promontory of Kiatassuaq Island. De Dodes Fjord and Sidebriksfjord lie north of the cape, and the Crimson Cliffs lie to the west. To the east, between Cape York and Cape Melville, is a chain of small offshore islands, the largest of which is Meteorite Island. Savissivik, a settlement on Meteorite Island, is located 37 km west-southwest of the Cape, and Perlernerit, about 2 km northeast of the Cape, was a closer permanent settlement. Admiral Robert Peary's second Arctic expedition in 1894 visited Cape York. Across the bay to the east is the island where the Cape York meteorite fragments were found. The name of the settlement of Savissivik means "place of meteorite iron" in Greenlandic, referring to the many meteorites from 10,000 years ago that have been discovered in the area. The meteorite weighed an estimated 100 tons before it exploded, and its iron attracted Inuit migrants from Arctic Canada.