First, If you’re trying to email me, hold on for about five days until we get to Iceland, as I cannot access my email from the ship.
Today are making our way from Svalbard to Jan Mayen island, a mostly uninhabited island between Svalbard and Iceland. We were informed soon before the trip that this island was no longer on the schedule, as the Base Commander (there’s a base) had canceled all tourist ship landings.
Fortunately, our expedition leader managed to secure permission for us to land, and since I can’t look it up on the Internet (it’s all I can do to post), I can’t see what is there. Readers are invited to look it up themselves and then tell me what I can see. Today I rest (insomnia is still with me), go to a few talks, read (the ship has an excellent library of polar-related books), and, of course, eat, though downing three meals a day is sapping my desire for food.
Here is a mother polar bear and cub taken from the ship yesterday, sleeping on a patch of snow. No, they are not dead. Yes, it was taken from a long way away, but 1.5 polar bears are better than none:
Thanks. Surely 1.5 bears is better than none! They are positioned in their little snow field just as I remember a polar bear at the National Zoo in Washington DC a hot August day many years ago. He was similarly spread out in the shade of his deep pen with tummy against the cool, wet rock deck.
Are you giving lectures?
Nope, I paid my way, but I got a half-price deal. There are some lectures of various lengths by the naturalists and other staff, and they have been very good.
I will assume that higher resolution images will be forthcoming when you get home. In the meantime, what an adventure!
Yes, very high resolution images. I have to take 5 mB down to about 60kB. But the lack of response is making me rethink whether I want to continue this website much longer.
I suspect you’ll get more engagement when you return. I generally feel rude sending texts, email, or other communications to people who are on vacation. Doubly so if they are having internet problems!
But since you’re essentially asking, the whale of a feast was a great shot, and I’m looking forward to some closeups of the nesting birds.
Pleeze continue! You’re scaring me. I need to read WEIT every night before bed.
Extract from Wikipedia:
Jan Mayen (Urban East Norwegian: [jɑn ˈmɑ̀ɪən])[1] is a Norwegian volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean with no permanent population. It is 55 km (34 mi) long (southwest-northeast) and 377 km2 (146 sq mi) in area, partly covered by glaciers (an area of 114.2 km2 (44.1 sq mi) around the Beerenberg volcano). It has two parts: larger northeast Nord-Jan and smaller Sør-Jan, linked by a 2.5 km (1.6 mi) wide isthmus. It lies 600 km (370 mi) northeast of Iceland (495 km [305 mi] NE of Kolbeinsey), 500 km (310 mi) east of central Greenland, and 900 km (560 mi) northwest of Vesterålen, Norway.
The island is mountainous, the highest summit being the Beerenberg volcano in the north. The isthmus is the location of the two largest lakes of the island, Sørlaguna (South Lagoon) and Nordlaguna (North Lagoon). A third lake is called Ullerenglaguna (Ullereng Lagoon). Jan Mayen was formed by the Jan Mayen hotspot and is defined by geologists as a microcontinent.[2]
Although administered separately, in the ISO 3166-1 standard, Jan Mayen and Svalbard are collectively designated as Svalbard and Jan Mayen, with the two-letter country code “SJ”. It was also given the web domain of .sj. However, the domain is not in use and Norway’s .no is used in its place.
Jan Mayen is home to Beerenberg, which is the northernmost subaerial active volcano in the world.[3][4]
Jan Mayen consists of two geographically distinct parts. Nord-Jan has a round shape and is dominated by the 2,277 m (7,470 ft) high Beerenberg volcano with its large ice cap (114.2 km2 or 44 sq mi), which can be divided into twenty individual outlet glaciers. The largest of those is Sørbreen, with an area of 15 km2 (5.8 sq mi) and a length of 8.7 km (5.41 mi). South-Jan is narrow, comparatively flat and unglaciated. Its highest elevation is Rudolftoppen at 769 m (2,523 ft). The station and living quarters are located on South-Jan. The island lies at the northern end of the Jan Mayen Microcontinent. The microcontinent was originally part of the Greenland Plate, but now forms part of the Eurasian Plate.
The island was identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it is a breeding site for large numbers of seabirds, supporting populations of northern fulmars (78,000–160,000 pairs), little auks (10,000–100,000 pairs), thick-billed guillemot (74,000–147,000 pairs) and black guillemots (100–1,000 pairs).[40]
I have this in an upcoming draft post. But you left out the part about the GRAVEL!
Sorry, Prof:
Natural resources
Kármán vortex street created by Beerenberg volcano in the westerly winds
Jan Mayen Island has one exploitable natural resource, gravel, from a site located at Trongskaret. Other than this, economic activity is limited to providing services for employees of Norway’s radio communications and meteorological stations located on the island. Jan Mayen has one unpaved airstrip, Jan Mayensfield, which is about 1,585 m (5,200 ft) long. The 124.1 km (77.1 mi) coast has no ports or harbors, only offshore anchorages.
There are important fishing resources, and the existence of Jan Mayen establishes a large exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around it. Norway has asserted a 200-nautical-mile (370-kilometre) EEZ around the island since 1980 encompassing more than a quarter of a million square kilometers. The Norwegian Coast Guard is responsible for conducting fishery and other maritime surveillance and enforcement in these waters.[5]
Norway has found large deposits of minerals along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between Jan Mayen and southern Svalbard/Bear Island,[6] including copper, zinc, cobalt, gold and silver. The expeditions have also discovered high concentrations of lithium and scandium. In total, it is estimated that the amount of copper could amount to 21.7 million tonnes, but other estimates are around 7 million tonnes. License for deep sea mining is now under consideration.[7]
A dispute between Norway and Denmark regarding the fishing exclusion zone between Jan Mayen and Greenland was settled in 1988 granting Denmark the greater area of sovereignty. Geologists suspect significant deposits of petroleum and natural gas lie below Jan Mayen’s surrounding seafloors.[8]
Thank you for all your posts! My insecurities prevent me from posting much, but WEIT is an important part of my day.
That said, the amount of work you do is unimaginable to me. You could consider running the experiment of taking a break to see if that improved your insomnia. IMHO, your well-being is more important than WEIT.
Happy chillin’ with polar bears!
It seems that Russia is currently doing provocative things to the Baltic States’ GPS. I wonder if anxiety over that spilled over to Iceland/Jan Mayen Island and that was the basis of canceling tourist ship landings.