Isfjord Radio

I meant to link to The Oatmeal yesterday with his piece about riding Polar Bears. Polar bears are scary. Below are pictures of a polar bear hanging out around the buildings of Isfjord Radio.



I went out to look at my coils accompanied by someone with a gun and a bird stick. The terns did not give us too much trouble. The coils were still buried and not posing any problems.



I was unable to set up an internet connection for our system. We are going to ask someone from UNIS to download the data for us from time to time so we don't have to go out every year. Since I downloaded the data and it looked great, the coils were good, and I couldn't do anything about the internet, I caught the boat going back to Longyearbyen today instead of Friday.

On the boat ride, we took a detour and went to see a glacier up close. While we were taking pictures part of the glacier collapsed. The guide drove the boat away quickly in case the part breaking away caused a large wave (not too big) or came for us (did not happen). It was pretty amazing to see the glacier up close and personal. Apparently the glaciers on Svalbard 'surge' and recede. The glaciers are frozen to the ground on the bottom and therefore can't move. Each winter more snow piles on top than what melts during the summer. Eventually, the glacier can't take all the weight and it surges forward. The friction caused by the glacier moving along the ground causes it to melt and be proceeded by a large amount of water. The surging can reach speeds of 25 m / day, but usually is much lower than that. Eventually the glacier is thin enough and it refreezes to the ground to begin the process again.





Take note of the outcropping on the left:


Know what you no longer see?

The outcropping is not there. There was a couple of spurts of water coming out from underneath it directly before collapsing. It was amazing.

From 2010-07-20

Maybe I'll be back sometime in the coming years. Or not, but I was really grateful for the opportunity to come out and do this field work! It was great. I am now trying to find a flight home sooner than next Monday.