Greenland Canyon

Greenland's Grand Canyon

800 m deep, 750 km long.

The cut

800 metres, to scale.

A slice through Greenland's Grand Canyon where it is deepest and narrowest, measured on the Copernicus relief model every 30 m. Same scale as the landmark standing on the floor.

800m

Depth

750km

Length

Rim to floor

Afternoons, up top and down below.

In July the afternoon reaches -7 °C. The rim freezes at night all year round.

rim · — mfloor · — m

-35°-35°Jan
-36°-36°Feb
-35°-35°Mar
-27°-27°Apr
-16°-16°May
-8°-8°Jun
-7°-7°Jul
-11°-11°Aug
-20°-20°Sep
-27°-27°Oct
-32°-32°Nov
-34°-34°Dec

Frost on the rim: Jan–Dec

Afternoon highs, 1991–2020 averages (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the rim and of the floor with the standard lapse rate (6.5 °C per 1 000 m). Shade, wind and rock change this on the day. Not a forecast.

Canyon in Greenland

Greenland's Grand Canyon is a canyon in Greenland. The published depth is 800 m. It runs for 750 km.

Guided hikes, a bed nearby, a car.

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In our other atlases

What else is around Greenland's Grand Canyon.

The river that carved it, the waterfalls inside it, the mountains on the rim, the lakes, beaches and island nearby — from our six sister atlases, each with its own figures.

Islandyason an island

Greenland2,130,800 km²

Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.

Month by month

The weather, at the floor and at the rim.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Afternoon · floor	-35	-36	-35	-27	-16	-8	-7	-11	-20	-27	-32	-34
Afternoon · rim	-35	-36	-35	-27	-16	-8	-7	-11	-20	-27	-32	-34
Night · rim	-40	-41	-40	-33	-22	-13	-11	-16	-25	-31	-37	-39
Rain (mm)	7	5	7	8	10	16	18	27	12	14	9	7
Rainy days	1	1	1	2	3	5	6	7	4	3	2	1
Sun hours/day	—	2.6	5.8	11.8	18.6	21.3	18.5	12.9	9.0	3.6	—	—

	Afternoon · floor	Afternoon · rim	Night · rim	Rain (mm)	Sun hours/day
Jan	-35	-35	-40	7	—
Feb	-36	-36	-41	5	2.6
Mar	-35	-35	-40	7	5.8
Apr	-27	-27	-33	8	11.8
May	-16	-16	-22	10	18.6
Jun	-8	-8	-13	16	21.3
Jul	-7	-7	-11	18	18.5
Aug	-11	-11	-16	27	12.9
Sep	-20	-20	-25	12	9.0
Oct	-27	-27	-31	14	3.6
Nov	-32	-32	-37	9	—
Dec	-34	-34	-39	7	—

Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the floor (— m) and the rim (— m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.

Recent years

Wet years, dry years.

Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
2020	41%	51%	52%	211%	42%	106%	84%	136%	56%	133%	100%	142%
2021	132%	110%	52%	171%	152%	71%	110%	81%	56%	261%	68%	80%
2022	146%	33%	123%	125%	82%	94%	159%	57%	220%	188%	48%	184%
2023	54%	76%	131%	107%	91%	71%	233%	195%	185%	49%	87%	46%
2024	68%	131%	139%	157%	119%	92%	70%	84%	344%	201%	194%	114%
2025	91%	76%	223%	79%	265%	144%	205%	28%	120%	113%	187%	62%

130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month

Where these figures come from

Name, type, published depth and length	Wikidata (Q14759900) · CC0
Climate	NASA POWER, 1991–2020
Viewpoints, trails, bridges and the river line	© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
Images	EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Rivers, waterfalls, mountains, lakes, beaches and islands nearby	Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.