This remote area was named Dronning Louises Land after Queen Louise of Denmark (1851–1926), wife of King Frederik VIII of Denmark,[8] by the ill-fated 1906–08 Denmark Expedition —the expedition that aimed to map one of the last unknown parts of Greenland.[9] Danish Arctic explorer Alf Trolle claimed that this area had been originally named as Den Store Nanuták —The Big Nunatak.[10]
Surrounded by ice masses, Queen Louise Land is clearly delimited. It is an extensive area made up of several very large and numerous small nunataks (summits or ridges of mountains that protrude from the ice). Its western boundary is the Greenland ice sheet and its eastern limits are the massive Storstrommen and L. Bistrup Brae glaciers. Kap Aage Bertelsen is a small headland at the confluence of the large Storstrømmen and L. Bistrup Bræ glaciers in the east. Dryasdal is a valley seasonally covered with Dryas octopetala flowers. The area of Queen Louise Land is uninhabited.[5]
The main geographic divisions or parts of Queen Louise Land from north to south are:
Many of the mountains and massifs are little glaciated. Mountains are generally rounded and rarely craggy, but there are numerous cliffs. The average elevation is around 1,500 m.[8]
Peacock, J.D. 1958: Some investigations into the geology and petrography of Dronning Louise Land, N.E. Greenland. Meddelelser om Grønland 157(4), 139 pp.
Trolle, A. 1913: Hydrographical observations from the Danmark Expedition. Meddelelser om Grønland 41(2), 271–426.
