Perlerfiup Fjord & Maamorilik, Greenland: August 3, 2025

Cecilia Clark
Sep 18
2 min read

Morning brought clouds, fog, and thunder. We were in Perlerfiup Fjord near the glacier of the same name. The glacier thundered, creaked, and rumbled as it adjusted itself. Streams of water exploded out over the rocks and below the ice. The glacier at 609 metres (1,998 feet) high flows from the Greenland ice cap. It is very impressive and a little daunting to be so close to something so cold and powerful.

We cruised toward the glacier in a zodiac. From a distance it looks like the zodiacs are close to the glacier, but for safety sake the zodiacs stay at least 400 meters from the glacier's face (terminous). Calving of a huge chunk of ice can create tsunami like waves. As the glacier moves over land, it collects dirt and rocks visible in this glacier and in some of chunks of ice it has shed.

The ship cruised back out of Perlerfiup Fjord to Maamorilik. The walls of the fjord were stunning with glacial tongues visible in the gorges between mountain peaks.

The afternoon destination was just a fjord away at the former marble quarry known as Maamorilik (1930s). Across the peninsula from the marble quarry is the site of the abandoned Black Angel Mine (1973 to 1990). The mine's name came from the black figure near the top of the 1100 m (3600 ft) mountain. The mine's entrances at 750 m (2460 ft) above fjord level are the four rectangular openings in the marble rock face to the left of the black angel. From these openings, they mined zinc, iron, lead, and silver. The mining camp and all equipment was on the peninsula across from the mine. Tram cars were used to get miners and ore buckets to and from the peninsula over the fjord to the Black Angel Mine. Over the years of operation, 11.2 million tons of minerals were extracted. When the extractable minerals were exhausted, mining operations were abandoned.

Zodiacs took us over to the peninsula, and we strolled around in the marble rubble while exploring all the mine had left behind.