The Cape York Meteorite fell thousands of years ago on the southern shore of this island.[2]
Geography
Meteorite Island is quite barren and desolate. It lies off the shore of Meteor Bay and is the largest of the group part of a small chain of coastal islands formed by Meteorite Island, Salve Island, George Island, Bushnan Island and a small islet. This chain of islands is located between Cape York and Cape Melville.[3]
The Inuit village of Savissivik is located at the southwestern end of Meteorite Island.[4] The settlement has a heliport, Savissivik Heliport and in 2010 it had 66 inhabitants.[5]
In the Greenlandic language, the name of the settlement Savissivik means 'place of meteorite iron' (savik = iron/knife),[6] alluding to the numerous meteorites from 10,000 years ago that have been found in the area.[7] The meteorite is estimated to have weighed 100 tonnes before it exploded.[7] The iron from the meteorite attracted migrating Inuit from Arctic Canada.[7]
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