Large glacial fronts of ice sheets once also covered large parts of the Arctic Ocean and exerted pressure on the seafloor in the shelf region. Nowadays, the ice barriers are all in retreat, also on Svalbard (pictured: Austfonna). Picture: Michael Wenger The melting of...
Everyone who has been to Longyearbyen knows this picture: The statue of the miner and Svalbardbutikken, Longyearbyen’s biggest (and only) supermarket. The latter gets a facelift as a belated birthday gift. Photo: Julia Hager Living on Svalbard has advantages and...
Barneo is an annual Arctic research camp operated by the Russian Geographical Society. It has been set up on the pack ice near the geographic North Pole for a month each year from late March or early April since 2002. (Photo: Camp Barneo) What does it look like at the...
In the cemetery, the deceased were buried in normal graves from 1918 to 1950, including seven victims of the Spanish flu. Coffin burials were no longer permitted out of fear that the pathogen might reappear and because the bodies are preserved in the permafrost soil....
Snowstorm and darkness at noon on the glacier. Photo: Andreas Alexander The wind howls and swells. The icy cold snow blows up in our faces. The dry snowflakes hurt the skin and without snow goggles it would be completely impossible to keep the eyes open in this...