Maniitsoq ()The pre-1973 spelling was Manîtsoq or Mannétsoĸ. The name means "Place of Rugged Terrain".Ross, James. Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-west Passage, and of a Residence in the Arctic Regions During the Years 1829, 1830, 1831, 1832, 1833. A.W. Webster, 1835.Air Greenland. "Maniitsoq ". or Sukkertoppen is a town on Maniitsoq Island, western Greenland located in the Qeqqata municipality. With 2,534 inhabitants , it is the sixth-largest town in Greenland.
History
Archaeological finds indicate that the area has been settled for more than 4,000 years.
The modern town was founded as New or Nye-ManiitsoqWalker, J. & al. "British North America. Published under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge." Baldwin & Cradock (London), 1834.Colton, G.W. "Northern America. British, Russian & Danish Possessions In North America." J.H. Colton & Co. (New York), 1855. in 1782 by Danish colonists relocating from the original Sukkertoppen, a trading post founded in 1755 at the site of present-day Kangaamiut. In time, the original name was taken up again.
In the 19th century, the town served as a major trading post for the Royal Greenland Trading Department's trade in reindeer hides.Kane, Elisha Kent. Arctic Explorations: The Second Grinnell Expedition. 1856.
Maniitsoq Municipality was a former municipality of Greenland. It is now part of Qeqqata Municipality.
Climate
Maniitsoq experiences a tundra climate (Köppen: ET); with short, quite cool summers and long, freezing winters. In the climate box below, the temperature extremes were combined from both the 1961-1979 and 1991-2020 observational periods.
Industry There have been plans for an Alcoa aluminium smelting plant either at Maniitsoq or Sisimiut for an extended period, at least since 2008, without progressing to construction. The plant would provide employment for 600–700 people, or more than one percent of the population of Greenland. As it is a vital decision for the town, wide public consultations were carried out in 2008–2010 by both the town authorities and the Greenland Home Rule Government in order to address potential environmental and social concerns.
Transport Air
Maniitsoq is served by Air Greenland with flights to Nuuk and Sisimiut.
Sea Maniitsoq is a port of call for the Arctic Umiaq ferry.AUL, Timetable 2009
Population With 2,534 inhabitants , Maniitsoq has experienced a decline in population over a long period of time. The town has lost almost 15% of its population relative to 1990 levels, and nearly 9% relative to 2000 levels.
Migrants from the smaller settlements such as rapidly depopulating Kangaamiut choose to migrate to Sisimiut, the capital in Nuuk, and sometimes to Denmark, rather than Maniitsoq. Kangerlussuaq and Sisimiut are the only settlement in the Qeqqata municipality exhibiting stable growth patterns over the last two decades.
Notable people
Germaine Arnaktauyok (b. 1946), Inuk printmaker, painter, and drawer Mimi Karlsen (b. 1957), politician Sofie Petersen (b. 1955), Lutheran Bishop of Greenland Rasmus Lyberth (b. 1951), singer, actor Thue Christiansen (1940–2022), designer of the Greenlandic flag, artist
Literature The novel The Prophets of Eternal Fjord by Kim Leine is set in Sukkertoppen.
Maniitsoq structure
The Maniitsoq structure is a proposed 3 billion-year-old (3 Ga) impact structure located in the Akia terrane of the North Atlantic Craton, centred about south-east of the town of Maniitsoq, Greenland, at . Its origin has been debated since it was first proposed as an impact structure in 2012. The Maniitsoq structure is not recognised as an impact structure by the Earth Impact Database.
The proposal was criticised for not meeting established criteria for recognising impact craters. Subsequent studies in the region have demonstrated that there is no evidence for an impact structure, and a number of observations directly contradict the earlier impact structure proposals.
In support of the proposal, a study published in 2023, used electron microscopy to examine zircon grains from seven sites, including the Maniitsoq structure. The study found distinctive shock-induced planar microstructures in the zircon grains from the four recognized impact structure, as well as in the Maniitsoq structure. These microstructures were not found in grains from the two non-impact tectonic deformation structures.
Twin towns – sister cities Maniitsoq is twinned with:
Esbjerg, Denmark Salzburg, Austria
References
External links
Winter's Yearning (POV documentary series): Greenland reckons with its Danish colonial past and the promised future by a US company.