Greenland Fjord

Current Context : Recently, a diesel fuel spill from a ship that sank spreads to the Greenland fjord.

ABOUT FJORD

• A fjord is a long, narrow, and deep body of water that extends inland, typically set within a U-shaped valley flanked by steep rock walls.
• Mainly found in regions such as Norway, Greenland, Chile, New Zealand, Canada, and Alaska.

Formation Process:

• Fjords are formed by glaciers over several ice ages. As glaciers moved, they eroded both the ice and the underlying land.
• The melting glacier water carved deep valleys, often making fjords deeper than the seas that feed them.
• At the fjord’s mouth, glaciers left behind sediment, forming shallower areas, leading to rapid water currents and saltwater rapids.

Features:

• Some fjords contain coral reefs and rocky islands known as skerries.
• Epishelf lakes can also form in certain fjords, where freshwater from melted glaciers becomes trapped under floating ice shelves, creating distinct freshwater layers above the saltwater.