Kongsfjord

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Kongsfjord
The Kongsfjord: View from the south over the Lovénøyane

The Kongsfjord: View from the south over the Lovénøyane

Waters Arctic Ocean
Land mass Spitsbergen
Geographical location 78 ° 58 '  N , 11 ° 51'  E Coordinates: 78 ° 58 '  N , 11 ° 51'  E
Kongsfjord (Svalbard and Jan Mayen)
Kongsfjord
width 4 to 12 km
depth 22 km
surface 208.8 km²
Greatest water depth 394 m
Islands Blomstrandhalvøya , Gerdøya, Breøyane, Lovénøyane, Prins Heinrichøya, Mietheholmen

The Kongsfjord ( Norwegian Kongsfjorden , English Kings Bay , German  sometimes Kingsbai ) is a fjord in the northwest of the island of Spitsbergen . It separates Oscar II land in the south from Haakon VII land in the north. Located at the very south shore Ny-Ålesund , the northernmost settlement of Spitsbergen .

geography

Together with the Krossfjord , the Kongsfjord opens north of Prins Karls Forland at about 79 ° north latitude to the Greenland Sea . While the Krossfjord stretches to the northeast and finally to the north, the Kongsfjord runs along the southwestern Brøggerhalvøya peninsula to the edge of the Kongsvegen and Kongsbreen glaciers to the southeast. It is about 22 kilometers long and up to 12 kilometers wide at its entrance between Kvadehuken in the south and Cape Guissez in the north. In the north and east, other glaciers such as the Kongs, Conway and Blomstrandbreen calve directly into the fjord. This is up to 394 m deep at its entrance, but relatively shallow in the inner part with a depth of less than 100 m. Here it contains numerous islands, of which Blomstrandhalvøya is the largest. The water volume of the Kongsfjord is estimated at an area of ​​208.8 km² at 29.4 km³.

nature

landscape

The landscape at the Kongsfjord is varied. It is bordered by rugged mountains, so that only Brøggerhalvøya and the entrance to the fjord have flat, snow-free coastlines. The ridges and the banks of the inner fjord are extensively glaciated. To the east there are three prominent mountain peaks of over 1000 m height, the Tre Kroner ( Three Crowns ) with the names Svea, Dana and Nora (for Sweden, Denmark and Norway).

flora

The inner Kongsfjord is characterized by lush vegetation by the standards of Svalbard . The fertilization by the birds that breed here allows a density and variety of vascular plants to grow that is otherwise rarely found on the archipelago . Among other things, you can find the Greenland spoonbill ( Cochlearia groenlandica ), the narrow-leaved arnica ( Arnica angustifolia ), the dwarf gentian ( Comastoma tenellum ), the two-part scaled sedge ( Kobresia simpliciuscula ), the small sandwort ( Arenaria humifusa ) and the Woodsia glabella .

fauna

Numerous rocks and flat islands ensure that the inner part of the Kongsfjord in particular is a breeding area for many sea ​​birds . Are particularly widespread, the eider , the King Eider , the long-tailed duck , the glaucous gull and the snow bunting . But you can also find the short-billed goose , the barnacle goose , the sandpiper , the Thor's grouse , the hawk sku and the rare ivory gull .

Svalbard reindeer were released on the Brøggerhalvøya peninsula in 1978, and the number of reindeer varies greatly. The population of 375 animals in 1993 fell to only 75 in the next winter due to unfavorable conditions, but recovered again in the following years. Arctic foxes and occasionally polar bears can also be found . Bearded seals and several hundred ringed seals live in the Kongsfjord . Beluga whale sightings are not uncommon.

natural reserve

The Kongsfjord does not belong to any of the seven national parks in Svalbard , but the Kongsfjord bird reserve (Norwegian: Kongsfjorden fuglereservat ) was established as early as 1973 , an IUCN category Ia protected area . It includes the Lovénøyane and some other islets. The 1200 hectare Ossian Sars nature reserve has existed since 2003, which is particularly intended to preserve the unique plant community at Ossian Sarsfjellet, a rock massif between Kongsbreen and Kongsfjord.

140 hectares of the inner Kongsfjord are designated by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (SJ003).

history

Kings Bay Kul Compani workers 1918
The Norge airship on the Kongsfjord, 1926

The Kongsfjord was regularly visited by whalers as early as the 17th century . Henry Hudson called it Whales Bay in 1607 , Jonas Poole in 1610 Deere Sound . Pomorian trappers came to the area in the 18th century, and Norwegian trappers from the 19th century. In 1861 the Kongsfjord was visited by a scientific expedition led by Otto Torell . The Swedish chemist Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand researched the hard coal deposits on the south bank of the Kongsfjord. In 1891, the German polar explorer Wilhelm Bade led the Württemberg Spitzbergen expedition into the fjord, and the mining engineer Leo Cremer (1866–1901) examined the coal's suitability for mining. From 1893, Bade carried out one or two cruises to Svalbard annually and thus founded Svalbard tourism, which today brings more than 20,000 people to the Kongsfjord every summer.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Kongsfjord became an interesting starting point for flights to the North Pole. The first step was made by Ferdinand von Zeppelin , who in 1910 took the steamship Mainz on a study trip to Spitzbergen to investigate the possibility of pole flight with one of his airships . He was accompanied by the aerologist Hugo Hergesell and the polar researcher Erich von Drygalski . The zeppelin flight never took place, but on Hergesell's initiative, the Ebeltofthafen geophysical observatory was built on the Krossfjord in 1912 . Some geographical names on the Kongsfjord that were assigned to participants of the trip, such as Zeppelinfjellet, Prins Heinrichøya, Mietheholmen (after Adolf Miethe ) and Dietrichholmen (after Max Dietrich (1870–1916), the captain of Mainz ), remind of Zeppelin's journey . 1925 started Roald Amundsen and Lincoln Ellsworth from Kongsfjord from the unsuccessful attempt the North Pole with two Dornier Wal - flying boats to reach. On May 7, 1926, the Norge airship arrived at the Kongsfjord, where a mooring mast had been erected earlier and is still standing today. But before Amundsen, Ellsworth and the captain of the airship Umberto Nobile could begin their flight to the pole, the Americans Richard Evelyn Byrd and Floyd Bennett came before them in a three-engine Fokker. On May 8, her plane took off from Ny-Ålesund in the direction of Pol and returned after 15 hours. The aviators had done a great job, but Byrd's claim to have reached the Pole was soon questioned and refuted. The Norge took off on May 11 and reached Teller in Alaska 71 hours after flying over the North Pole. Two years later, Nobile returned to the Kongsfjord. On May 13, 1928, his airship Italia took off near Ny-Ålesund on a successful research flight to Severnaya Zemlya . Eight days later it flew to the North Pole and had an accident on the return flight north of Kvitøya .

The first mining activities on the fjord began in 1911. The British Northern Exploration Company Ltd. built on Blomstrandhalvøya the settlement Ny-London for up to 70 people and operated a marble quarry under the direction of the businessman Ernest Mansfield (1862-1924) . After the activities in the First World War had ceased, the unprofitable mining of the rock was then completely stopped. The mining of hard coal was more sustainable. In 1917, Kings Bay Kul Compani , based in Ålesund, Norway, founded the mining settlement Ny-Ålesund on the south bank of the Kongsfjord. The mining of coal ceased in 1929, but was resumed by the Norwegian state-owned company Kings Bay AS after the Second World War . The population of the settlement quickly grew to 200 residents. In some years tens of thousands of tons of hard coal were mined. However, the mining conditions were very difficult and repeatedly led to serious accidents that cost a total of 76 miners their lives. After one last serious accident on November 5, 1962, in which 21 men died, the mine was closed. The Norwegian Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen , whose government was blamed for the lack of safety in the tunnels, had to resign.

From the mid-1960s, scientific stations from different nations settled in Ny-Ålesund, some of which are manned all year round, so that about 30 researchers live here even in winter. In summer the number is significantly higher.

Web links

Commons : Kongsfjorden  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Luke D. Trusel, RD Powell, RM Cumpston, J. Brigham Grette: Modern Glacimarine Processes and potential future behavior of Kronebreen and Kongsvegen Polythermal Tidewater Glaciers, Kongsfjorden, Svalbard (PDF; 531 KB). In: JA Howe, WEN Austin, M. Forwick, M. Paetzel (Eds.): Fjord Systems and Archives , Geological Society of London, Special Publications 344, 2010, pp. 89-102. doi : 10.1144 / SP344.9 (English)
  2. ↑ a b Katharina Streuff: Landform Assemblages in Inner Kongsfjorden, Svalbard: Evidence of Recent Glacial (Surge) Activity (PDF; 8.3 MB), Master's Thesis, University of Tromsø, 2013
  3. ↑ Rolf Stange: Kongsfjord on www.spitzbergen.de
  4. ↑ Øystein Overrein: Kongsfjorden's vegetation , Cruise Handbook of Svalbard, Norsk Polarinstitutt (English)
  5. ↑ a b Inner parts of Kongsfjorden (SJ003) on the BirdLife International website, accessed on May 6, 2020
  6. ↑ Øystein Overrein: Kongsfjorden's wildlife , Cruise Handbook of Svalbard, Norsk Polarinstitutt (English)
  7. ↑ Data sheet of the Kongsfjord Bird Reserve at the Norwegian Environment Directorate (Norwegian), accessed on December 11, 2013
  8. ↑ Data sheet for the Ossian Sars nature reserve at the Norwegian Environment Directorate (Norwegian), accessed on December 11, 2013
  9. ↑ Martin Conway: No Man's Land. A History of Spitsbergen from Its Discovery in 1596 to the Beginning of the Scientific Exploration of the Country , University Press, Cambridge 1906, p. 25
  10. ↑ Martin Conway: No Man's Land. A History of Spitsbergen from Its Discovery in 1596 to the Beginning of the Scientific Exploration of the Country , University Press, Cambridge 1906, p. 34
  11. ↑ The Swedish expeditions to Spitzbergen and Bären-Eiland carried out in 1861, 1864 and 1868 under the direction of O. Torell and AE Nordenskiöld , Greisbach, Gera 1874, p. 291f.
  12. ^ Leo Cremer: A trip to Spitzbergen . In: Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift 6, 1891, pp. 483–486
  13. ↑ In 2006, 22,040 tourists visited Ny-Ålesund (see: Anika Laubitz-Bertram: Tourism on Spitzbergen - socio-economic opportunities and ecological risks ( Memento from December 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 2.01 MB). Bachelor thesis , Faculty of Natural Sciences at Leibniz University Hannover , 2009)
  14. ^ Adolf Miethe and Hugo Hergesell: With Zeppelin to Spitzbergen , Berlin and Leipzig 1911
  15. ^ Fergus Flemig: Ninety degrees north. Der Traum vom Pol , Rogner and Bernhard, Hamburg 2003, p. 505f. ISBN 3-8077-0172-9
  16. ^ Umberto Nobile: Flights over the Pole , VEB FA Brockhaus Verlag, Leipzig 1980, pp. 81–135
  17. ^ Umberto Nobile: Flights over the Pole , VEB FA Brockhaus Verlag, Leipzig 1980, pp. 136–220
  18. ↑ Kristin Prestvold: London (Peirsonhamna) , Cruise Handbook of Svalbard, Norsk Polarinstitutt (English)
  19. ↑ Kristin Prestvold: Ny-Ålesund , Cruise Handbook of Svalbard, Norsk Polarinstitutt (English)