New data about the arc­tic ice loss in 2013: A danish report gives new figu­res about the ice loss from the Green­land inland ice and sea ice in the Arc­tic Oce­an. Accor­ding to the report, ice loss was signi­fi­cant in 2013, but slight­ly less dra­ma­tic than in 2012 both for land and sea ice.

The con­tri­bu­ti­on of the Green­land inland ice to glo­bal sea level rise in 2013 is 1.2 mm. The time frame con­side­red is from Octo­ber 2012 to Sep­tem­ber 2013, to include one win­ter and one sum­mer sea­son (gla­cio­lo­gi­cal year). This sea level rise is the value that cor­re­sponds to the total net­to ice loss of 430 Gt (1 Gt = 1 Giga­tonn = 1 bil­li­on tonns). The lar­gest ice volu­me lost within 24 hours was on July 25, when an incre­di­ble 12 Gt eit­her mel­ted or bro­ke off as ice­berg! In 2012, howe­ver, the cor­re­spon­ding value is an even more incre­di­ble 20 Gt. The nega­ti­ve trend of the Green­land inland ice’s mass balan­ce is accor­din­gly con­tin­ued in 2013, even though it is slight­ly less rapid than in 2012, regar­ding some important key figu­res.

The gla­cier move­ments were more or less nor­mal in 2013. At least, no dra­ma­tic events were recor­ded as in 2012, when the lar­ge Peter­mann Gla­cier in wes­tern north Green­land show­ed some dra­ma­ti­cal­ly huge cal­ving.

The trend of the sea ice in the Arc­tic Oce­an seems to be rough­ly com­pa­ra­ble. During spring, the time of the lar­gest ice cover, the­re was at least more ice than during the past 5-8 years on avera­ge, but this is hard­ly good enough to relax con­side­ring the series of recent nega­ti­ve records. The ice loss con­ti­nues, even if it is slight­ly less rapid then in the nega­ti­ve record year of 2012. The annu­al ice mini­mum is num­ber six on the list of years of the smal­lest sea ice cover sin­ce 1979. An important reason is belie­ved to be in the rela­tively calm wind con­di­ti­ons of the Arc­tic Oce­an, which pushed less ice out through the Fram Strait bet­ween Green­land and Spits­ber­gen into the Atlan­tic than in pre­vious years.

Polar­por­tal is an infor­ma­ti­on platt­form run by seve­ral Danish rese­arch insti­tu­ti­ons, inclu­ding DMI (the Danish Meteo­ro­lo­gi­cal Insti­tu­te) and GEUS (Danish Geo­lo­gi­cal Ser­vice) to publish their results.

Source: Polar­por­tal

The trap­per sta­ti­on at Aus­t­fj­ord­ne­set in inner Wij­defjord will be used again. The hut belongs to the Sys­sel­man­nen, who used to give it to appli­cants who wan­ted to live as trap­per for at least one year. A few years ago, the sta­ti­on was clo­sed. Reasons given were too high cos­ts or legal uncer­tain­ties, both of which was not real­ly con­vin­cing and the decis­i­on to clo­se Aus­t­fj­ord­ne­set accor­din­gly con­tro­ver­si­al.

Now, a new trap­per may move in. He or she should have expe­ri­ence with hun­ting and trap­ping, sledge dogs, good health and a CV wit­hout dark spots and may then app­ly to the Sys­sel­man­nen until the end of 2013.

Source: Sys­sel­man­nen

The first ton coal has been seen the light of day in the new mine at Lun­ckef­jel­let, north of Sveagru­va.

It will, howe­ver, still take some time until regu­lar pro­duc­tion can start. So far, the com­pa­ny, Store Nor­ske, has inves­ted 1.2 bil­li­on Nor­we­gi­an Kro­ner at Lun­ckef­jel­let. The explo­ita­ble coal reser­ves at esti­ma­ted near 8.4 mil­li­on tons, far less than for exam­p­le in Sveagru­va in its ear­ly days, whe­re mining is now coming near its end. Mining at Lun­ckef­jel­let will, accor­din­gly, only last a cou­ple of years.

Geo­lo­gi­cal­ly, the Lun­ckef­jel­let seam is an equi­va­lent of the Lon­gyear seam, which is stra­ti­gra­phi­cal­ly a bit hig­her (in other words: youn­ger) than the Svea seam.

The Spitsbergen-Svalbard.com news are curr­ent­ly taking a break – in Spits­ber­gen, the­re is now polar night and things are accor­din­gly pret­ty calm, and the main aut­hor is in Ant­ar­c­ti­ca the­se days. Plea­se visit our Face­book page for regu­lar updates from Ant­ar­c­ti­ca and some first pho­tos. And of cour­se soon on Spitsbergen-Svalbard.com: pho­to gal­le­ries, tri­plogs and pan­o­r­amic images – the lat­ter for the first time also from the Falk­land Islands, South Geor­gia and the South Sand­wich Islands.