Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A peak, ridge, or hill of bedrock that protrudes from a glacier's surface.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A crest or ridge of rock appearing above the surface of the inland ice in Greenland.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun In Greenland, an insular hill or mountain surrounded by an ice sheet.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A mountain top or rocky element of a ridge that is surrounded by glacial ice but is not covered by ice; a peak protruding from the surface ice sheet.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[West Greenlandic Inuit nunataq.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Greenlandic nunataq.

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Examples

  • At Merger, a "nunatak" or rocky peak sticking out of the ice, the only evidence of a visit by U.S. scientists in 1975 is a tiny metal stake covered by a pile of rocks.

    Reuters: Top News 2009

  • Peggy said ... nunatak: I'll keep an eye on the SciFri blogs

    Added to the Blogroll Peggy 2008

  • Data Not Shown is a new science blog by UK postdoc Karen James (aka nunatak).

    Added to the Blogroll Peggy 2008

  • Peggy said ... nunatak: I believe that the issue of monomaniacalness (if that's a word) is really central to the issue of making the culture of science more welcoming to women.

    Christiane Nusslein-Volhard, Sexism and Stereotypes Peggy 2008

  • Data Not Shown is a new science blog by UK postdoc Karen James (aka nunatak).

    Archive 2008-02-01 Peggy 2008

  • But in one place a nunatak about 250 feet high stood out in front of the precipice, and the ascent of this offered no great difficulty.

    The South Pole~ The Eastern Sledge Journey 2009

  • I looked at the map and it should have been a nunatak, but the present ice margin was about 10 kilometers away.

    Greenland Melting JDsg 2007

  • One of us, in any case, found immense enjoyment in rolling one big block after another down the steep slopes of the nunatak.

    The South Pole~ The Eastern Sledge Journey 2009

  • We very soon put our things together, and came down the nunatak even more quickly.

    The South Pole~ The Eastern Sledge Journey 2009

  • Sunday update: I woke up in the middle of the night last night thinking that I really ought to point out that the opinions expressed in this post belong to me, nunatak, and do not necessarily reflect those of fellow blogger Peter Mc or The Beagle Project.

    The National Academy of Sciences weighs in on creationism 2008

Comments

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  • An isolated rock peak projecting above the surface of inland ice. Compare monadnock, rognon and pingo.

    January 1, 2008

  • Sounds like "Nun attack" - which brings to mind an awesome mental image of nunchuck-wielding, bad-ass ninja nuns (c:

    May 24, 2008

  • I see a sea of billowing black muslin, tipped here and there with startched-stiff white cotton. I see dour, sunken faces and bony, liver-spotted talons grasping wooden rulers poised for rapping the hell out of sinful young knuckles.

    Ahhh, that felt good.

    May 24, 2008

  • There's a place in Antarctica called the Whichaway Nunataks, which even as I child I considered deeply scary: lost in the wilds of Antarctica, nuns coming at you from every direction, ninja-like and polar-bear-like concealed under their camouflage twats, crevasses impeding your escape.

    November 22, 2008

  • If it is a word used in Antarctica, what is its connection to Inuktitut?

    December 24, 2008

  • I guess it was taken there by people with experience of the north, BB.

    December 24, 2008