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Gipsdalen

A large valley in Bünsow Land

Gipsdalen, map

Gips­da­len is a lar­ge val­ley in Bün­sow Land, bet­ween Bil­lefjord and Tem­pel­fjord.

The lar­ge pen­in­su­la bet­ween Bil­lefjord and Sas­senfjord / Tem­pel­fjord is cal­led Bün­sow Land. This is one of the most scenic are­as of Spits­ber­gen.

The lar­ge Gips­da­len val­ley runs through the cent­re of Bün­sow Land. It has some inte­res­t­ing scenic, geo­lo­gi­cal and his­to­ri­cal fea­tures: The water solu­bi­li­ty of the car­bo­na­te rocks cau­ses them to dis­sol­ve under­ground. Geo­mor­pho­lo­gi­cal­ly, this leads to karst for­ma­ti­on, which can include caves and, through their col­lap­se, sink­ho­les (col­lap­se fun­nels on the sur­face, also known as doli­nes). Rivers can run under­ground in places. The­re are no known caves in Gips­da­len, but it can be assu­med that the­re are some under­ground.

The wide, beau­tiful Gips­da­len is part of the usu­al win­ter rou­te from Lon­gye­ar­by­en to the north, that is to Pyra­mi­den or to Wij­defjord or to nor­the­as­tern Spits­ber­gen: New­ton­top­pen, Atom­fjel­la or Ver­le­gen­hu­ken. Here the morai­ne of Burn Mur­doch­breen.

The Scot­tish SSS (Scot­tish Spits­ber­gen Syn­di­ca­te), in which the well-known Scot­tish polar explo­rer Wil­liam Speirs Bruce was invol­ved, explo­red coal depo­sits in Gips­da­len in the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry. A few rui­ned huts, also far from the coast in the val­ley, and a rus­ty trac­tor on the shore still bear wit­ness to this. Howe­ver, the­re was no mining.

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last modification: 2025-02-06 · copyright: Rolf Stange
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