Adventdalen

Adventdalen as seen from the EISCAT radar

Polar night: at noon the moon stands over the table mountains on the edge of the Adventdalen

Polar voyage with the steamer Munich , port of Advent Bay July 17 - August 12, 1925, with Longyearbyen in the background

The Adventdalen is a 30 km long underground valley on the island of Spitsbergen in Svalbard . It flows into the Isfjord at the Adventfjord . At the mouth of the island is Longyearbyen , the main town in the archipelago. The valley runs from the mouth first southwards, then eastwards.

The valley has several side valleys, clockwise from the north: Mälardalen, Helvetiadalen, Eskerdalen , in the south Janssondalen, Foxdalen, Bolterdalen, Todalen and the Endalen , 4 km from Longyearbyen. The Adventelva flows through the valley.

Two of Longyearbyen's seven coal mines are located along the valley, Mine 6 and Mine 7 (plus Pit 3 at the mouth of the Icefjord). The universities of Tromsø and Alaska operate a northern lights observatory in Adventdalen, as well as the SOUSY weather radar, which was originally developed at the Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy MPAE (today Solar System Research, MPS) .

History and name

The valley takes its name from the fjord, the name of which is much older. The name has nothing to do with Advent , but is a disfigurement of the English Adventure Bay , probably by an English whaler called Adventure , who was stationed here in 1656. Originally the fjord was called Billefjord, but this name (after the Danish whaler Cornelius Claeszoon Bille) now bears a fjord on the north side of the Isfjord. Older names are therefore Claas Billen Baaij , Klaas Billen Bay , Klaas bille Baay , Be de Nicolas Bille or Klaasbillen Baai . The name Advent Bay appears for the first time in 1865 at Dunér and Nordenskiöld. Conway (1906) names the golf Adventure Bay and gives clues about its origin.

On the east side of the fjord was Advent City , a mining settlement that was inhabited from 1904 to 1917. The houses were later moved to Hiorthamn (about 2.5 km southeast), so only foundations are left here.

Literature and Sources

• C9 Adventdalen , from the 1: 100,000 card set for Svalbard, Norsk Polarinstitutt
• The Place-Names of Svalbard ( Memento July 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) . Norsk Polarinstitutt, Oslo 1942, 2001 edition. ISBN 82-90307-82-9

Web links

Commons : Adventdalen  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Conway (1906), p. 202.
2. ↑ v. Clubs (1707)
3. ↑ Giles & Rep (1710)
4. ↑ Zorgdrager (1720)
5. ↑ de remains (1801)
6. ↑ Bennet & van Wijk 1829

Coordinates: 78 ° 13 '  N , 15 ° 48'  E