Changing Greenland - National Geographic

Changing Greenland

Erik the Red killed a man in Iceland over a trifle and worshipped Norse gods until the end, but at Qassiarsuk (above), site of his Greenland farm, there is a replica of the tiny wood church he built for his wife, who converted to Christianity. A wall kept out the livestock.

Changing Greenland

Glacial meltwater flows into Tasermiut fjord in south Greenland on a late September afternoon. The region's 4,000-foot-high granite cliffs draw world-class rock climbers.

Changing Greenland

A September storm darkens Tasermiut fjord.

Changing Greenland

Late afternoon light glints off the ice near Isortoq. The ice sheet covers four-fifths of the country and contains nearly 7 percent of Earth's fresh water, but it is shrinking by some 50 cubic miles each year.

United States

StatesLike a glass sculpture forged in the Pacific's eternal churn, a four-foot-tall backwash splash—the result of two waves colliding in the shallows near Kaena Point on Oahu, Hawaii—refracts the saturated glow of dawn.