TCThe CryosphereTCThe Cryosphere1994-0424Copernicus GmbHGöttingen, Germany10.5194/tc-9-2215-2015Brief communication: Getting Greenland's glaciers right – a new data set of all official Greenlandic glacier namesBjørkA. A.andersb@snm.ku.dkKruseL. M.MichaelsenP. B.Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, DenmarkOqaasileriffik – The Greenland Language Secretariat, Ministry of Culture, Education, Research and Church, Nuuk, GreenlandDanish Geodata Agency, Danish Ministry of the Environment, Copenhagen, DenmarkA. A. Bjørk (andersb@snm.ku.dk)1December2015962215221811February201512March201528August20153November2015This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This article is available from https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/9/2215/2015/tc-9-2215-2015.htmlThe full text article is available as a PDF file from https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/9/2215/2015/tc-9-2215-2015.pdf
Place names in Greenland can be difficult to get right, as they are a mix of
Greenlandic, Danish, and other foreign languages. In addition, orthographies
have changed over time. With this new data set, we give the researcher
working with Greenlandic glaciers the proper tool to find the correct name
for glaciers and ice caps in Greenland and to locate glaciers described in
the historic literature with the old Greenlandic orthography. The data set
contains information on the names of 733 glaciers, 285 originating from the
Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) and 448 from local glaciers and ice caps (LGICs).
Why place names matter
It goes without saying that referring to a geographical feature with a
consistent name saves both the reader and the author a lot of trouble.
However, problems may arise when there is no consensus as to which feature
is being referred to or when the name changed. In Greenland, history has not
been kind to the researcher who wishes to get the place names right. The
written Greenlandic language has undergone changes since the first
expeditions there, and names have changed over time. Furthermore, the
languages spoken on the east and west coasts of Greenland also differ,
causing further dissimilarities in the names. Therefore, it can be quite a
challenge to use the correct place name in Greenland. There are already
databases of geographic place names available, such as the US National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency GEOnet Names Server, but it has not been
updated recently and contains errors and place names in the old Greenlandic
orthography. While many researchers have gone to great lengths to get
glacier names right (Higgins, 2010; Laursen, 1972;
Rignot and Mouginot, 2012; Weidick, 1995), until now no complete list of
official glacier names has been presented to the public. It is with this
predicament in mind that we wish to share with the cryospheric community
this data set of official names of all Greenlandic glaciers. Furthermore, we
match the glacier names data set with the Randolph Glacier Inventory (GRI),
the most complete glacier inventory available (Pfeffer et al., 2014; Rastner et al., 2012).
A brief history of Greenlandic place names
The official authority of place names in Greenland is Nunat Aqqinik
Aalajangiisartut (NAA) (http://www.oqaasileriffik.gl) and the
Danish Geodata Agency (GDA) (www.gst.dk), formerly the Danish
Geodetic Institute. These have been well aware of the problems that may
arise from differing place names and have initiated a formalization of all
Greenlandic place names. This is no easy task in a country of Greenland's
size, where humans have lived and traveled for centuries and have named features
in the landscape. In addition to names already listed in the official
database, names have also been collected by the GDA and later the NNA from
maps, historic literature, and oral accounts.
Traditionally, Greenlandic place names have been more of a description of
the place than a name in the conventional format. This is also the case with
many glacier names; however, no complete translation exists
(Geodatastyrelsen, 2013). Danish or foreign names were often given
to the glaciers during expeditions, but these are rarely descriptive of the
glacier. Instead, the glacier names were often given to please funders,
family, colleagues, and celebrities.
Registration of place names in Greenland became formalized in 1934 when the
Greenland Place Names Committee was formed in Denmark (Kleivan,
1990). Efforts to formalize the place names were made during the creation of
a large map series of the entire coastline. During this process, a
representative from the then Danish Geodetic Institute would travel the
coast and record all known names with the assistance of locals. All sorts of
features were recorded, and the geographic location was pinned down on the
map. The place names were thus based on communication with the locals and
the quality of existing maps. This record, along with names from previously
published maps that passed the board of the Greenland Place Names Committee,
became part of the official list of recognized place names. This database,
known as the “Berthelsen List”, consisted of more than 25 000 entries and
was known to contain errors and discrepancies, such as double entries and
wrong coordinates.
In 1973, Greenland underwent language reform and the orthography was
changed. In 2001, the NNA implemented the new Danish way of spelling
“glacier” (gletsjer). As an example, the large marine-terminating glacier,
Kangerlussuaq Gletsjer, on the southeast coast of Greenland (Wager et al., 1937) was
changed from Kangerdlugssuaq Gletscher to Kangerlussuaq Gletscher to
Kangerlussuaq Gletsjer in the process. However, the pre-1973 orthography is
most often used in the scientific literature (Bevan et al., 2012;
Joughin et al., 2008; Khan et al., 2014).
In 1984, the responsibility for Greenlandic place names was transferred to
the Greenland Home Rule and NNA. In 1996, single authorization of place
names was introduced in Greenland, allowing only one official name, which is
the Greenlandic name where applicable. Thus, Jakobshavn Isbræ, Greenland's fastest outlet
(Joughin et al., 2014), officially became Sermeq Kujalleq. Since then,
more than 6000 additional names have been added. It is from this list of
place names that all glacier names have been extracted. Furthermore, all
glacier entries have subsequently gone through vigorous quality control:
erasing double entries, replacing misplaced data points by manually checking
all entries in the data set, and comparing their location with that of maps
published by the GDA. Higgins (2010) contains a comprehensive history of
Greenlandic place names, which also includes a long list of both official
and unofficial place names in northeast Greenland.
Distribution of official glacier names in Greenland and contents
of new palace name data set. Local glaciers and ice caps (LGICs) are in green;
glaciers from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) are in red. (a) The spatial
concentration of glacier names is high in the populated areas and in areas
that have been extensively explored – however, there are still fairly large
stretches of coastline with no named glaciers (e.g., the southeast and north
coasts). Background image: IBCAO ver3.0 (Jakobsson et al.,
2012). (b) A zoom-in on the Melville Bay in northwest Greenland with examples
of the contents of the new glacier name database. Background images are a
GIMP hillshade (Howat et al., 2014).
A new data set of Greenlandic glacier names
The present data set is a compilation of the official Greenlandic names of
733 glaciers; 285 glaciers are outlets or passive margins from the Greenland
Ice Sheet (GrIS), and 448 are local glaciers or ice caps (LGICs). The
448 LGICs represent ∼ 2.2 % of the more than 20,000 Greenlandic LGICs
represented in the RGI. However, the LGICs on this list account for
∼ 41 % of the total area of Greenlandic LGICs in the RGI. Figure 1
provides geographic location for named GrIS glaciers and LGICs and presents an
example of the information available in the database. The database contains
the old and new Greenlandic spellings of glacier names, the foreign name if
one exists, and the current official place name. The current official place
name is the new Greenlandic name, and when no Greenlandic name exists, the
official name is the foreign name, often with the Danish suffix for glacier:
gletsjer. Many of the Danish glacier name spellings include the letters
Æ (æ), Ø (ø), and Å (å).
For each glacier presented in the database, information on the glacier's ID
in the RGI (Pfeffer et al., 2014; Rastner
et al., 2012) is available. The RGI ID was added because this is presently
the most complete inventory of Greenlandic ice bodies. Furthermore,
information regarding whether the name refers to a section or an outlet of
the GrIS or is a LGIC is also available. Coordinates are given as
latitude/longitude for the place name location and for the center
coordinates of the glacier polygon in the RGI.
By examining the data set, one might notice that an intensively studied and
unofficially named glacier is missing. This can be explained by the fact
that the glacier name in question has yet to be recognized as having an
official name, either because it has not been brought to the attention of
the NNA or because it has been discarded by the authorities in the past.
There are several examples of glaciers that have been widely studied and
whose name may appear official but is not. A prominent example is the most
studied local glacier in Greenland, which is known as the Mittivakkat Gletscher
(Mernild et al., 2011). The name Mittivakkat (formerly spelled
Midtluagkat) refers to the large nunatak on the glacier and was mapped in 1932, by the Seventh
Thule Expedition led by the Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen
(Rasmussen, 1933). Later, the glacier was given its unofficial
name by researchers studying the glacier (Fristrup, 1960;
Hasholt, 1976; Larsen, 1959). However, the name was never authorized by the
proper authorities. There are many similar examples along the coast of
Greenland. Another example is the large number of glaciers that were named
by Norwegians in central east Greenland in the early 1930s. None of these
names made it onto the official list, as they were regarded as politically
motivated namings (Higgins, 2010), as Denmark and Norway were
fighting over the right to east Greenland.
It should be noted that the database of official Greenlandic glacier names
is not exhaustive nor finished; it is a work in progress, and the NAA is
continuing the process of registering new and old place names. In connection
with the publication of the present data set, we strongly urge the scientific
community to send suggestions of old and already established glacier names
that do not appear on the list. It is recommended that these should be sent
along with the references in which the glacier name appears. We will then
gather all these unofficial place names and submit a single application to
the NNA to have the names considered. Once the glacier names are on the
official list, they will appear, according to map scale and map purpose, on
future official maps. This collaborative scientific effort will clarify the
nomenclature of Greenlandic place names and greatly assist future work.
Using this data set
The data set presented is available online in a spreadsheet, as an ArcGIS
shape file, and as a KML layer. The data set can be accessed at Figshare, where it
will be updated and stored under a Creative Commons (CC0) license
(http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1449148,
http://figshare.com/articles/GreenlandGlacierNames_GGNv01/1449148).
To avoid further confusion regarding the use of the correct names, we
suggest that the official glacier name be used whenever referring to a
Greenlandic glacier. However, as many glaciers have been studied in the
past, but the literature refers only to the Danish/non-Greenlandic name, we
suggest that both names are mentioned in cases where a glacier's unofficial
foreign name has become widely accepted within the scientific community.
When using this data set, please reference this publication.
The Supplement related to this article is available online at doi:10.5194/tc-9-2215-2015-supplement.
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank all the individuals and authorities who throughout the
years have collected and maintained what has become this data set, as well as Hester Jiskoot
and Jacob Yde, whose reviews greatly improved this paper. Furthermore
we thank Andreas Sanimuinaq, Boas Nathanielsen, Domilia Kristiansen,
Efraim Olsen, Hans Uitsatikitseq, Hjelmer Hammeken, Inukitsorsuaq Sadorana,
Jakob Skade, Jakob Zeeb, Juliu J. Jørgen Jensen, Jaappili B. Ignatiussen,
Kangaamiut Aviisiat, Karl Berthelsen, Lars B. Mikaelsen, Lars Jeremiassen,
Lars Kilime, Levi Uitsatikitseq, Mamarut Kristiansen, Marius Nakinge,
Morten Josvassen, Niels Fly, Nukappiannguaq Hendriksen, Odaaq Tivnaaq,
Ole Mørch, Rasmus Ignatiussen, Siorantigut, Taliilannguaq Peary, and
Ulrik Sanimuinnaq, who have all contributed to the compilation of alternative
glacier names, and Martin Hvidberg (GST), Allen Pope and Kenneth Mankoff for
valuable discussions and advice. This work is part of the “X_Centuries
Project” funded by the Danish Council Research for Independent
Research (FNU) (grant no. 0602-02526B).
Edited by: E. Larour
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