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Stormbukta

PanoTour

Storm­buk­ta as a vir­tu­al pan­o­r­amic tour

Here is a 360° tour with beau­tiful 360 degree shots of Storm­buk­ta:

s_Panotour_Stormbukta

(1) Storm­buk­ta

Storm­buk­ta is far south on the west coast of Spits­ber­gen, bet­ween Horn­sund and Spitsbergen’s south cape. It was named after a per­son and not after the strong winds that are often blo­wing here; the lat­ter would actual­ly have been equal­ly appro­pria­te. They say the most inte­res­t­ing places are often the most dif­fi­cult ones to get to; Storm­buk­ta is a good exam­p­le for that. It is com­ple­te­ly open to the often stor­my north Atlan­tic in the west, and the shal­lows can make landing tri­cky. It is for good reason Sør­kapp Land is not exact­ly among­st the most fre­quent­ly visi­ted parts of Spits­ber­gen.

(2) Storm­buk­ta: Trol­lo­sen

But the­re is some­thing spe­cial to Storm­buk­ta, it is a uni­que place. Among­st others, the­re is Spitsbergen’s lar­gest spring, cal­led Trol­lo­sen (“troll spring”). It is actual­ly a river coming out of a karst cave, pou­ring about 20 cubic met­res of water per second over a short distance into the sea. The water flow owes its exis­tance to the com­bi­na­ti­on of water-solu­b­le car­bo­na­te rocks and a geo­lo­gi­cal fault, which pro­ba­b­ly initia­ted ground­wa­ter flow even in per­ma­frost con­di­ti­ons. The wide gla­ciers of Sør­kapp Land pro­vi­de suf­fi­ci­ent melt­wa­ter.

(3) Storm­buk­ta: Ger­man war wea­ther sta­ti­on “Land­vik”

During World War II, the Nazis estab­lished secret wea­ther sta­ti­ons in remo­te parts of the Arc­tic. In mid Octo­ber 1944, a sub­ma­ri­ne trans­por­ted 2 Nor­we­gi­ans com­ple­te with equip­ment to Storm­buk­ta to pro­vi­de the Ger­man air force with meteo­ro­lo­gi­cal data used, for exam­p­le, to plan attacks on allied con­vois. The sta­ti­on hut was built behind a litt­le rock hill, not visi­ble from the coast.

(4) Storm­buk­ta: Kriegs­wet­ter­sta­ti­on “Land­vik”

From ear­ly May 1945, the 2 Nor­we­gi­ans in Ger­man ser­vice sent their wea­ther data not in coded form, but used clear text. They were not picked up befo­re ear­ly August and had to ser­ve 2 years in pri­son in Nor­way for having ser­ved for the Ger­man mili­ta­ry secret ser­vice “Abwehr” in Storm­buk­ta.

(5) Storm­buk­ta

From an ele­va­ted posi­ti­on, the land­scape fea­tures of Storm­buk­ta beco­me clear. Olsok­breen is visi­ble in the south. Bet­ween the coast­li­ne and the coas­tal moun­ta­ins, the­re is a stri­pe of flat land, as is typi­cal for lar­ge parts of Spitsbergen’s west coast. The tun­dra the­re is most­ly bar­ren, but patches of lush green tun­dra indi­ca­te the pre­sence of bird cliffs in the vici­ni­ty. Thou­sands of kit­ty­wa­kes are bree­ding on some steep cliffs in Storm­buk­ta, an ide­al home also for an arc­tic fox fami­ly.

All an all, Storm­buk­ta has a lot of both typi­cal Spits­ber­gen west coast cha­rac­te­ristics and some uni­que fea­tures (the spring Trol­lo­sen, remains of the war wea­ther sta­ti­on Land­vik). Landing con­di­ti­ons are often difi­cult, if not impos­si­ble, and you can call yours­elf hap­py if you have been the­re.

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last modification: 2019-05-09 · copyright: Rolf Stange
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