A new ava­lan­che has des­cen­ded at Hiorth­fjel­let on the north side of the Advent­da­len, oppo­si­te Lon­gye­ar­by­en. No one was har­med. Secu­ri­ty forces have inves­ti­ga­ted the site and found no dama­ge or trap­ped per­sons.

The evacua­ti­on of most of the house­holds in Lon­gye­ar­by­en has now been part­ly can­ce­led. Howe­ver, num­e­rous hou­ses in Rou­te 222, 226 and 28 still remain clo­sed to the resi­dents. They were able to get per­so­nal items from their homes yes­ter­day during the day. The ava­lan­che war­ning still exists.

Souce: Sys­sel­man­nen

92 house­holds in Lon­gye­ar­by­en are curr­ent­ly being evacua­ted becau­se fur­ther ava­lan­ches are feared. The ava­lan­che, which yes­ter­day dama­ged two hou­ses in way 228, was obvious­ly unde­re­sti­ma­ted by the aut­ho­ri­ties in advan­ce. During the night at least one more ava­lan­che has come down on Gruve 7 way, but lucki­ly wit­hout doing any dama­ge.

On the basis of an unclear situa­ti­on, the ava­lan­che war­ning was now rai­sed to the hig­hest level 4. 92 house­holds in Lon­gye­ar­by­en are being evacua­ted, but also a more exten­si­ve evacua­ti­on is con­side­red, and may­be the sports hall has to be used as an emer­gen­cy shel­ter. Two hou­ses with six house­holds were yes­ter­day stron­gly dama­ged by ava­lan­ches. The­re was an ava­lan­che war­ning, but it did not affect any buil­dings.

Howe­ver, a lot of peo­p­le in Lon­gye­ar­by­en don’t trust the ava­lan­che war­ning sys­tem any­mo­re. Last year two peo­p­le were kil­led in an ava­lan­che acci­dent in their homes, which still awa­kens some bad memo­ries.

Source: Sval­bard­pos­ten, NVE

On Tues­day mid day, an ava­lan­che from the moun­tain Suk­ker­top­pen hit hou­ses in Lon­gye­ar­by­en and des­troy­ed two buil­dings in way 228, clo­se to the posi­ti­on of tho­se hou­ses that were des­troy­ed during the ava­lan­che in Decem­ber 2015. Two lives were lost in 2015.

This time, peo­p­le have escaped with luck. As far as is known so far, the­re is no inju­ry or loss of life.

The­re had been strong eas­ter­ly winds and drif­ting snow sin­ce Mon­day evening, a wea­ther situa­ti­on simi­lar to that befo­re the 2015 ava­lan­che. The local admi­nis­tra­ti­on had issued an ava­lan­che war­ning with the con­clu­si­on that infra­struc­tu­re and buil­dings in Lon­gye­ar­by­en were not at risk. This eva­lua­ti­on was obvious­ly wrong.

Tho­se direct­ly con­cer­ned expe­ri­en­ced some dra­ma­tic moments, but escaped with some luck.

The area hit and other ways that might be at risk as well as the pede­stri­an bridge Per­le­por­ten are clo­sed until fur­ther noti­ce from offi­ci­al side.

Source: Sval­bard­pos­ten

Two rese­ar­chers from the Alfred Wege­ner Insti­tu­te in Bre­mer­ha­ven found lar­ge amounts of pla­s­tic was­te at a depth of 2500 meters on the seabed in the Framstrait, a strait bet­ween Green­land and Spits­ber­gen.

From 2002 to 2014, the Framstrait seabed was sys­te­ma­ti­cal­ly pho­to­gra­phed with a remo­te-con­trol­led came­ra. The result of the stu­dy is dra­ma­tic: the deep sea threa­tens to beco­me a kind of “repo­si­to­ry for pla­s­tic was­te”, fears deep sea bio­lo­gist Dr. Mela­nie Berg­mann. In 2014 6333 pla­s­tic parts were coun­ted in the regi­on on a squa­re kilo­me­ter seabed! Alt­hough the­re is rela­tively litt­le human influence here, the amount of pla­s­tic was­te is com­pa­ra­ble to that found clo­se to lar­ge cities, for exam­p­le in the lower waters of Lis­bon.

Whe­re exact­ly the gar­ba­ge comes from, can not be said doubt­less­ly. What is cer­tain is that pla­s­tic was­te is also trans­por­ted into polar regi­ons with the Gulf Stream. In Framstrait seve­ral lar­ge streams of sea meet. It is the only link bet­ween the polar sea and the oce­ans. But also the sea ice could trans­port pla­s­tic parts, says Dr. Mela­nie Berg­mann. If the ice melts in sum­mer, pla­s­tic was­te can be released.

At the begin­ning of Febru­ary an obvious­ly sick Cuvier’s Bea­k­ed Wha­le (Ziphi­us cavi­rostris) stran­ded on the island of Sotra clo­se to Ber­gen. The Cuvier’s Bea­k­ed Wha­le is actual­ly a deep-sea wha­le, which very rare­ly stays in coas­tal are­as. In his sto­mach, more than 30 pla­s­tic bags were found …

Source: Alfred-Wege­ner-Insti­tut, NRK, Aften­pos­ten

A small but­ter­fly, that was con­side­red to be extinct, ended up in the net of some rese­ar­chers in the north of Spits­ber­gen. Plut­el­la Pola­ris was last seen 147 years ago in 1870, befo­re Geir Søli dis­co­ver­ed it again.

The rese­ar­cher of the Natu­ral Histo­ry Muse­um in Oslo visi­ted Ring­horn­da­len in the Wij­defjor­den in sum­mer 2015 to map plants and insects in the area. When he dis­co­ver­ed a small gray but­ter­fly in the squid, he regard­ed it first as a clo­se rela­ti­ve of Plut­el­la pola­ris, which is cal­led Plut­el­la xylostella, a spe­ci­es more fre­quent in the north of Nor­way and some­ti­mes is blown to Spits­ber­gen by the wind. Ring­horn­da­len is a val­ley well pro­tec­ted from the wea­ther and the­r­e­fo­re rela­tively warm and fer­ti­le.

The rather incon­spi­cuous but­ter­fly must have deve­lo­ped enorm­ous adap­ti­ve abili­ties in order to sur­vi­ve in Spits­ber­gen. The litt­le guy would only in a very short peri­od in sum­mer be able to find enough food. Plut­el­la Pola­ris is one of only three spe­ci­es of but­ter­flies regis­tered on Spits­ber­gen.

The occur­rence or dis­ap­pearance of spe­ci­es is par­ti­cu­lar­ly inte­res­t­ing with regard to the effects of cli­ma­te chan­ge. Rese­ar­cher Geir Søli hopes that soon more exci­ting dis­co­veries will fly into his net…

Source: Forskning.no, Sval­bard­pos­ten