Welcome to Polar Podcasts, where you’ll hear stories from geologists who’ve spent their careers, their lives, exploring and studying the remarkable and remote geology of Greenland. Why did they become fascinated with Greenland? What were the problems and the discoveries that drove them? And what was it like working in these remote places, where few people venture, even now? 

Niels Henriksen – known to many as Oscar – is emeritus senior scientist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland where he has almost seventy years experience working with the geology of Greenland. Starting out as a student at the University of Copenhagen, Niels had his first – and almost his last – field season in Greenland in 1952 with the Greenland Geological Survey, established only six years earlier.

Over his career, Niels led the operation of large field programs throughout Greenland, including in some of its remotest parts, such as the Caledonian Fold belt of Northeast Greenland, and northernmost Greenland, where no one lives and where there is no infrastructure along a stretch of more than 1000 km of coastline bordering the ice-filled Arctic Ocean.

Niels was instrumental in publication of numerous important maps and bulletins for the Survey, including the 1.2,5 million scale map of Greenland and the 1:1 million scale map of the east Greenland Caledonides, and popular science books including the Geological History of Greenland.

Polar Podcasts goes to air on August 4. Tune in and subscribe to hear Niels Henriksen and other career Greenland geologists talk about their experiences working in Greenland over the decades.