Width 30 km (19 mi) Elevation 609 m | Length 80 km (50 mi) Highest elevation 609 m (1,998 ft) | |
Adjacent bodies of water Muskox FjordNordfjordKaiser Franz Joseph FjordFoster Bay Zone NE Greenland National Park | ||
Gauss Peninsula (Danish: Gauss Halvø) is a peninsula in eastern Greenland. Administratively this peninsula is part of the Northeast Greenland National Park zone.
Contents
Geography
The Gauss Peninsula is located between the Muskox Fjord (Moskusokse Fjord) and Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord with the Nordfjord at its western end and the Foster Bay of the Greenland Sea shore on its southeastern side.
The peninsula is mountainous, with the Hjelm Range (Hjelmbjergene) located on the southern coast and the Giesecke Range (Giesecke Bjerge) located in the eastern part of the peninsula. Hold with Hope peninsula is located further to the east, beyond the Badland Valley (Badlanddal).
History
The second German North Polar Expedition 1869–70 originally gave the name Cap Gauss to a point on the south side of this peninsula, but A.G. Nathorst’s 1899 expedition was unable to determine the position because of the rounding of the coast and applied the name Gauss Halfö to the peninsula as a whole. It is named after German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss.