Mestersvig

Mestersvig seen from the tarmac

Coordinates: 72 ° 14 ′ 1 ″  N , 23 ° 55 ′ 22 ″  W.

Mestersvig​

Greenland

Mestersvig is located on the edge of the Northeast Greenland National Park on the King Oscar Fjord on the Greenland east coast around 200 kilometers north of Ittoqqortoormiit (Danish: Scoresbysund ). Mestersvig was a lead and zinc mine, part of which is now used for a Danish military outpost.

Mine time and consequences

From 1956 to 1963, a lead and zinc mine was operated near Mestersvig, about 10 km inland from Kong Oscars Fjord , where about 554,000 tons of ore were mined and processed on site. Around 58,000 tons of enriched lead ore and 75,000 tons of enriched zinc ore were produced here and transported to the fjord for shipping via a specially built road . The waste was dumped a mountain slope, from where a large part in the Kong Oscar Fjord opens flow Tunnelelv slipped. In 1979, environmental studies were carried out on site for the first time, which demonstrated high concentrations of zinc and lead pollution in the sediments at the bottom of the river and the fjord as well as in the water. Also lichen inland and particularly brown algae showed high heavy metal pollution . Traces were also found on the quay at Nyhavn. In later further investigations, most recently in 2001, deposits were found in mussels, algae and bullheads . Since lead and zinc never dissolve, but can only continue to spread and mix, contamination is expected for a long time to come.

Station today

With only two permanent residents, Mestersvig is the smallest of the only four permanently inhabited stations in Northeast Greenland National Park . The branch has an unpaved runway ( ICAO code : BGMV) around 1800 m in length and is a station for the Sirius patrol . The other three permanently manned posts in the national park are Daneborg , Danmarkshavn and Station Nord , as well as Summit Camp on the ice sheet .

Mesters Vig is the name of a bay about 12 km southeast of Mestersvig.

Web links

• 72 ° 14'14 "N 23 ° 56'0" W Satellite image of the Mesters Vig runway on Google Maps on June 22, 2016

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Work Report No. 241: "Environmental Impact of the Lead-Zinc Mine at Mestervig, East Greenland" (English) January 18, 2016, DCE - Nationalt Center for Miljø og Energi (National Center for Environment and Energy), accessed June 22, 2016
2. ↑ Great Circke Mapper - BGMV Airport , accessed June 29, 2016
3. ^ Mission Mestersvig 1: 2 , (Danish), January 9, 2016, TV2 Nord , accessed June 22, 2016