One of the most unique islands in the world is Greenland. Physically and ethnically, Greenland is an Arctic island country and geographically a part of the continent of North America. Politically and historically, Greenland is associated with Europe, specifically Iceland, Norway, and Denmark. Greenland is the largest dependent territory by area in the world. It also contains the world's largest national park.
When you take a closer look at the world map or the globe, Greenland appears to be like a continent because it appears to be larger than Australia, which is a continent. Even so, Greenland is just an island, actually the largest island in the world. Why is it so?
This is Scoresby Sund, the longest fjord in the world, stretching for 350 km (217 miles), and also one of the deepest (over 1500 m, 4,900 ft deep).
Greenland, compared with Australia's mainland excluding its other territories, appeared to be larger in size. Greenland has a total land area of 2,166,086 km² (836,109 sq mi), of which the Greenland ice sheet covers 1,755,637 km² (677,676 sq mi) (81%) and has a volume of approximately 2.85 million km3. The entire island has only 19 towns and 117 villages. And why is it that Greenland is just an island, not a continent? What's the difference between an island and a continent? According to Webster dictionary an island is a tract of land, usually of moderate extent, surrounded by water while a continent is a great landmass having generally the form of a plain and bordered by ridges of mountains and usually surrounded by water. Greenland is not bordered by mountain ridge that's why Greenland is considered only an island despite its large size. Greenland is actually the size of the Arabian peninsula, it's the map's projection that makes it look so big. The apparent large size of Greenland is due to the Mercator projection of the map. Greenland may look larger than Australia on the map, but Australia is actually larger in land area.
(The town Qaqortoq in southwestern Greenland)
And why is it that it was called Greenland when in fact its vast area is covered with ice? It should have been named “Whiteland” or “Iceland” or anything related to its physical features. The name Greenland comes from Scandinavian settlers. Erik the Red named the land Grænland (Greenland). Greenland was also called Gruntland (Ground-land) and Engronelant (or Engroneland) on early maps. Whether green is an erroneous transcription of grunt (ground), which refers to shallow bays, or vice versa, is not known. It should also be noted, however, that the southern portion of Greenland (not covered by glacier) is indeed very green. But according to some authors, the place was named Greenland in order to attract people to settle in the area.
