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20th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Natural World
Greenland Ice Cap, Looking Inland from Point 660

The edge of the Greenland ice cap in midsummer (July 2022) when streams of meltwater form between the mounds of ice. Gravel blown onto the icy crust makes this image resemble a pencil drawing. Point 660 is the at the end of a road built 20 years ago from the town of Kangerlussuaq by German automakers for a short-lived abandoned project to test drive cars on the ice sheet. The ice sheet has since retreated inland, so that the road now ends atop a steep moraine. At the bottom of the moraine, you can cross a plank placed across a fast-moving stream of meltwater and walk onto the ice sheet. I walked inland on the ice till I got to this view.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 07.2022
Date Uploaded: 11.2022
Photo Location: Kangerlussuaq, Greenland
Copyright: © Helen Glazer