Sassenfjord

Sas­senfjord and Tem­pel­fjord are loca­ted in inner Isfjord, north-east of Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

Gene­ral infor­ma­ti­on

Sas­senfjord is often per­cei­ved tog­e­ther with Tem­pel­fjord as one con­ti­nuous branch of the fjord. The­re is of cour­se some truth to this, as a glan­ce at the map makes clear, but Sas­senfjord can also be inter­pre­ted geo­mor­pho­lo­gi­cal­ly as an exten­si­on of the val­ley of Sas­send­a­len. This is why it has got a sepa­ra­te name to distin­gu­ish it from adjoi­ning Tem­pel­fjord and becau­se both are so lar­ge and varied, each has its own page so that it remains reason­ab­ly clear despi­te the many pic­tures.

View of Sas­senfjord from Del­ta­ne­set.

Geo­lo­gy

On the north side, around Gips­da­len, depo­sits from the late Palaeo­zoic (Car­bo­ni­fe­rous and Per­mi­an, upper Palaeo­zoic) domi­na­te. More on this on the page on the neigh­bou­ring Tem­pel­fjord, for exam­p­le, which share a lot of the geo­lo­gy.

On the sou­thern side, the Tri­as­sic is found all over the place with its dark clay­sto­nes and silts­to­nes: 200 mil­li­on year old depo­sits from shelf seas that could be com­pared to today’s North Sea. Fos­sils such as ammo­ni­tes and shells can be found in the­se rocks. Bones of mari­ne dino­saurs (ple­si­o­saurs, plio­saurs) have also been found in sedi­ments from the Tri­as­sic in the Sas­senfjord and can be seen today in the Natu­ral Histo­ry Muse­um in Oslo.

On the Gips­hu­ken-Vin­dod­den line in inner Sas­senfjord runs the Bil­lefjor­den fault zone, a lar­ge geo­lo­gi­cal fault zone that was acti­ve a long time ago, befo­re the Tri­as­sic sedi­ments were depo­si­ted. The last move­ments also took place in the Meso­zoic era (Tri­as­sic, Juras­sic, Creta­ce­ous), so that sedi­ments from the Car­bo­ni­fe­rous peri­od and even youn­ger ones are still par­ti­al­ly defor­med. You can see the resul­ting folds and faults in the slo­pes east of Vin­dod­den. Other impres­si­ve examp­les are in Bil­lefjord (Gips­hu­ken and nor­thwest of Petu­ni­abuk­ta) and fur­ther south in Nor­dens­ki­öld Land (Flek­surf­jel­let in inner Advent­da­len)

The mat­ter is simp­ler than it may seem at first: rocks must first exist befo­re they can be defor­med (fold­ed). If you see a fold or a fault in the lay­ers, then the move­ment that led to this defor­ma­ti­on took place after the lay­ers were depo­si­ted. It doesn’t work the other way round.

Impres­si­ons of shells from the Tri­as­sic at Del­ta­ne­set in the outer Sas­senfjord.

On the south side of the Sas­senfjord the­re are also basal­tic intru­si­ons of dia­ba­se (also known as hyperi­te or dole­ri­te), a rock simi­lar to basalt. Howe­ver, the colum­ns for­ma­ti­on in dia­ba­se is much coar­ser than in basalt; the­re are no such beau­tiful basalt colum­ns as in Ice­land in the dia­ba­se of Sval­bard. The rock that gave Dia­ba­sod­den and Hyperitt­fos­sen (a near­by water­fall) in Sas­senfjord their names is the same as at Alkef­jel­let in Hin­lo­pen Strait, to name just one well-known exam­p­le.

A few impres­si­ons of Del­ta­ne­set in the outer Sas­senfjord, whe­re you are in the right place if you are inte­res­ted in geo­lo­gy (and more):

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

Due to its rela­ti­ve hard­ness, the dia­ba­se often forms led­ges and steep steps in the ter­rain. At Dia­ba­sod­den (‘Dia­bas head­land’), a colo­ny of sea­birds, espe­ci­al­ly Brünich’s guil­l­emots, black guil­l­emots and a few puf­fins, bene­fit from the steep basalt cliffs, and in De Geerd­a­len, Hyperit­fos­sen, a beau­tiful litt­le water­fall, falls over a steep step cau­sed by a basal­tic intru­si­on (geese breed on top of the cliffs, so keep a good distance during the bree­ding sea­son).

Dia­ba­se at Hyperitt­fos­sen at Elve­ne­set (wide-ang­le shot).

Land­scape

On the north side, the view is domi­na­ted by the beau­tiful moun­tain Temp­let and direct­ly neigh­bou­ring the lar­ge val­ley of Gips­da­len.

On the south side, the slo­pes are less steep and the­re are also flat are­as of green tun­dra at Dia­ba­sod­den and De Geerd­a­len.

View over Elve­ne­set and the fro­zen Sas­senfjord to Temp­let.
Today, Sas­senfjord rare­ly free­zes over.

Flo­ra and fau­na

The­re are seve­ral bird cliffs on steep cliffs, with Dia­ba­sod­den on the south side of Sas­senfjord being par­ti­cu­lar­ly beau­tiful, part­ly becau­se it is quite acces­si­ble. In addi­ti­on to Brünich’s guil­l­emots, a few puf­fins and black guil­l­emots also breed the­re, as well as geese on the top of the cliffs. Appro­pria­te cau­ti­on is requi­red during the bree­ding sea­son.

The­re are many foxes in the area and reinde­er are num­e­rous in the tun­dra are­as. And if you think the­re are no polar bears this clo­se to Lon­gye­ar­by­en, you are in for a cre­a­my white sur­pri­se.

A few pic­tures of the flo­ra and fau­na in Sas­senfjord:

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

Histo­ry

The Pomors knew Sas­senfjord, but it is the trap­per Hil­mar Nøis who is still pro­min­ent­ly asso­cia­ted with the area today. He was known as the “king of Sas­senfjord” (or Sas­send­a­len or Tem­pel­fjord, for that sake). He had seve­ral huts in Sas­senfjord, for exam­p­le on Gips­huks­let­ta and Elve­ne­set (the lat­ter no lon­ger exists). His main hut was Fred­heim in Tem­pel­fjord.

Sas­senfjord: Dia­ba­sod­den, Elveneset/Hyperittfossen

The­se places are not right next to each other, but clo­se enough to walk bet­ween them. Beau­tiful hikes!

I have very fond memo­ries of Dia­ba­sod­den, which was one of my very first Spits­ber­gen expe­ri­en­ces. It was the­re that I made fri­ends and expe­ri­en­ced a land­scape for life, lear­nt for the first time that a Brünich’s guil­l­emot is dif­fe­rent from a black guil­l­emot and that moun­tain avens is dif­fe­rent from a Sval­bard pop­py and so on. Oh yes, the first polar bear you see in the wild is some­thing you never for­get … espe­ci­al­ly when it’s ‘at night’ (it wasn’t dark) right in front of the tent! Or what do you think, Claus? We cer­tain­ly won’t for­get it as long as our heads are still working 🙂

Dia­ba­sod­den, with Ursel and Claus (1997).

In this tri­ang­le bet­ween Dia­ba­sod­den and lower De Geerd­a­len (Hyperitt­fos­sen, Elve­ne­set) the­re is so much of what makes Spits­ber­gen beau­tiful and inte­res­t­ing. The sea­bird colo­ny in Dia­ba­sod­den. The tun­dra in De Geerd­a­len, the Hyperitt­fos­sen water­fall at Elve­ne­set (lower De Geerd­a­len). The moun­ta­ins with their hikes, views, fos­sils …

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

Pho­to gal­lery Sas­senfjord

A few more assor­ted impres­si­ons from Sas­senfjord.

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

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