Résumé of the possibilities for the use of Greenland Inland Ice for export

During 2005 and 2006, GEUS investigated several glaciers in West and South Greenland regard-ing possible freshwater extraction for bottled water export. The investigations were carried out for Greenland Home Rule, Department of Industry, Agriculture and Labour. This report, “Résumé of the possibilities for the use of Greenland Inland Ice for export” is the result of the reporting from Task 1 under the project: “Trade promotion concerning development and export of ice and water, i.e. by provision of technical and marketing knowledge within the ice and water sector”, that is carried out in a co-operation between GEUS, Greenland Resources A/S and Rambøll for Greenland Home Rule, Department of Industry, Agriculture and Labour. The résumé is based on the main report: “Analysis of glaciers from Greenland Inland Ice: Possibilities for employment of glaciers for production of ice for export of bottled water” (in Danish), GEUS 2006.

The résumé describes the need for additional data collection regarding the glaciers qualification for production of ice for bottled water production (see section 7) and selects which glaciers that are supposed to be especially suitable and that are recommended for further investigations (see section 8).

The selection of 45 glaciers and subsequent description of 43 glaciers from the Inland Ice in South and West Greenland between 60o and 67o N, was carried out in 2000. In addition to that 2 more glaciers were included. Concerning the localization of the glaciers and the navigation condi-tions in the fiords, the glacier character and the admission condition (accessibility) have been investigated from a glaciological/morphological/geological point of view (ice calving, deltas etc.) and the distance to towns, infra structure and working capacity.

A wide range of background data exists concerning the glaciers of South and west Greenland, see section 1.
The main report: “Analysis of glaciers from Greenland Inland Ice: Possibilities for employment of glaciers for production of ice for export of bottled water” (in Danish), GEUS 2006, includes de-scriptions of a long series of conditions concerning the glaciers, navigation, accessibility etc. A short description of these conditions is given in section 5.1.