Longyearbyen.info

Author: H. Benjamin

Posts by H. Benjamin

Glacier

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Within Spitsbergen, the surroundings of Longyearbyen enjoy a rather dry and relatively mild climate and show therefore only moderate degree of glaciation. Only 18 % of the land area is here covered by glaciers. Most of the glaciers are relatively small, isolated valley glaciers. Glaciers move by different mechanisms: The ice mass can slide downslopes as a whole block. This works only if the glacier is „warm“, which means that the temperature is at the pressure melting point near 0°C. Then, there is a thin water layer between the ice

A melting glacier

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Within Spitsbergen, the surroundings of Longyearbyen enjoy a rather dry and relatively mild climate and show therefore only moderate degree of glaciation. Only 18 % of the land area is here covered by glaciers. Most of the glaciers are relatively small, isolated valley glaciers. Glaciers move by different mechanisms: The ice mass can slide downslopes as a whole block. This works only if the glacier is „warm“, which means that the temperature is at the pressure melting point near 0°C. Then, there is a thin water layer between the ice

Beach ridges

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Close to the end of the runway, you can find nice fossil beach ridges. They can be seen as sea-parallel lines on land, being formed by variations in vegetation or forming elongated elevations. The glaciers on Svalbard were well beyond a thousand metres thick during the last ice age, and the weight of the ice pressed the earth crust down by almost two hundred metres. When this ice disappeared, the crust started to pop up again. The result was land uplift and consequently a retreating shoreline, leaving traces of former

Whale bones and shells

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In the small valley beside the road, you can find mummified shells and whalebones which are 10 000 years old and still smell.  The increase and loss of continental-scale ice volume during the Pleistocene left indirect, but nevertheless quite obvious traces in the landscape. The glaciers on Svalbard were well beyond a thousand metres thick during the last ice age, and the weight of the ice pressed the earth crust down by almost two hundred metres. When this ice disappeared, the crust started to pop up again. The result was

River delta

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Close to the end of the runway, you can find nice fossil beach ridges. They can be seen as sea-parallel lines on land, being formed by variations in vegetation or forming elongated elevations. The glaciers on Svalbard were well beyond a thousand metres thick during the last ice age, and the weight of the ice pressed the earth crust down by almost two hundred metres. When this ice disappeared, the crust started to pop up again. The result was land uplift and consequently a retreating shoreline, leaving traces of former