Thu
14 Sep
2023
Negribreen is amongst the largest glaciers of the main island of Spitsbergen. Earlier I would have said the largest glacier of the main island, but I am not so sure anymore.
Endless amounts of ice in all shapes and colours, some icebergs with otherworldly beautiful blue colours. A glacier front kilometres long. A monstrous calving … extremely impressive, extremely beautiful.
The changes that are apparent here are less beautiful. The eastern part, which used to be a stunning and very much alive glacier front just a couple of years ago, has partly disappeared, and the part that is still there is now reduced to a huge tabular piece of ice that is dead now, without a connection to the active part of the glacier. It will just disappear within a few years. In other words, the eastern part of Negribreen has seen an almost complete collapse, and the once so huge glacier is, well, still huge, but in comparison to its past, a mere shadow of its previous size.
Gallery – Storfjord: Negribreen & Straumsland – 14 September 2023
Click on thumbnail to open an enlarged version of the specific photo.
Later, we went to Heleysund and Straumsland. A beautiful part of Spitsbergen, with tundra, lakes, wetlands, basalt landscapes, Spitsbergen reindeer, arctic foxes and beautiful views of Heleysund, Kükenthaløya and Barentsøya.