Johan Peter Koch

Johan Peter Koch (15 January 1870 – 13 January 1928) was a Danish captain and explorer of the Arctic dependencies of Denmark, born at Vestenskov.[1]

Johan Peter Koch
Johan Peter Koch in 1907. Drawing by Achton Friis
Born(1870-01-15)15 January 1870
Vestenskov, Kingdom of Denmark
Died13 January 1928(1928-01-13) (aged 57)
Kingdom of Denmark
Service Royal Danish Army
Years of service1885–1928
RankColonel
Commands heldChief of the Army Air Corps
AwardsOrder of the Dannebrog
Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography
Carl-Ritter-Medaille
Scientific career
FieldsArctic exploration
Cartography

Career

J.P. Koch participated in Amdrup's expedition to east Greenland in 1900 and was one of the general staff of the surveying expeditions to Iceland in 1903–1904.

In 1906–1908 he was a member of the ill-fated Denmark expedition led by Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen, which mapped the last pieces of the northeastern coast of Greenland. On the death of Mylius-Erichsen and two others on a long sled voyage from Danmarkshavn to Peary Land, Koch along with the Greenlander Tobias Gabrielsen searched for the lost party, and found only the Greenlander Jørgen Brønlund on whose body were recovered the charts hand drawn by Niels Peter Høeg Hagen which completed the map of Greenland.

In 1907 Koch, together with Aage Bertelsen, was reported to have first seen Fata Morgana Land (Danish: Fata Morgana Landet), a phantom island supposedly lying between NE Greenland and Svalbard. This elusive land was allegedly seen as well by Lauge Koch from the air in 1933.[2]

Koch later led a sled expedition across the inland ice of Greenland in 1912–13, with Alfred Wegener, Vigfús Sigurðsson, and Lars Larsen.[3]

Honours

Koch received, among other honors, the Vega medal of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography. He also became a member of the International Polar Commission.

J.P. Koch Land 72°35′N 54°15′W in north-west Greenland was named after him. This ice-free peninsula is bounded by the Greenland Ice Sheet on the west side. There, next to the glacier, is Pingut mountain, which is the highest mountain in this land and also the northernmost basalt mountain in Greenland. On the north side, J.P. Koch land is bounded by Upernavik Icefjord, in the west and south by Eqaluarssuit Fjord (sv). The land is about 1010 square-km in area.[4]

The J.P. Koch Glacier was named in his honour.

Publications
  • Meddelelser om Grønland, xxvi, xlvii (50 volumes, Copenhagen, 1876-1912)
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See also

References
  1. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. "Catalogue of place names in northern East Greenland" (PDF). Geological Survey of Denmark. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  3. Koch, J.P. (1914), "Captain Koch's Crossing of Greenland.", Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, 46 (5): 356–360, doi:10.2307/201816, JSTOR 201816
  4. Seyd, Felizia (1951), "J.P. Koch Land", in Stefansson, Vilhjalmur (ed.), Encyclopedia Arctica, 14: Geographical Items on North Greenland: Greenland, Svalbard, Etc. Geography and General, New York: The Stefansson Library
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