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Lågøya

Lågøya

Map Lågøya

Gene­ral: The name Lågøya means ‘Low Island’ and is descrip­ti­ve.

The west side of Lågøya inclu­ding the nor­t­hern tip, Purchas­ne­set, is sea­so­nal­ly pro­tec­ted: it is not allo­wed to go on shore or to approach within 300 met­res from the coast (inclu­ding off­ly­ing rocks) from 15 May to 15 August.

For more, detail­ed infor­ma­ti­on: the Gui­de­book Spits­ber­gen-Sval­bard

Guidebook Spitsbergen-Svalbard

Lågøya -low island. Nordaustland in the background

Lågøya, ‘low island’. Nord­aus­t­land in the back­ground.

Geo­lo­gy: Most­ly defor­med, non-meta­mor­phic sedi­ments (quar­zi­tes and sub­or­di­na­te car­bo­na­tes) belon­ging to the base­ment (youn­ger Pro­tero­zoic), simi­lar to Sorg­fjord, Murch­ison­fjord or Lom­fjord are­as (nor­t­hern Hin­lo­pen Strait). Part­ly dole­ri­tes (upper Juras­sic Creta­ce­ous).

Colourful stripes of various quarzites and dolostones on Lågøya

Colourful stripes of various quar­zi­tes and dolos­to­nes.

Recom­men­ded book for fur­ther, well-digesta­ble (real­ly!) info about geo­lo­gy and land­scape of Sval­bard.

Land­scape: Most­ly flat, low hills and some smal­ler and lar­ger lagoons and lakes. The stee­p­ly dip­ping, mul­ti­co­lou­red quar­zi­tes forms nice, colourfull stripes in places, which have some­ti­mes been rework­ed to rosette-like struc­tures. The bea­ches are cover­ed with drift­wood and, unfort­u­na­te­ly, pla­s­tic trash brought up the­re by curr­ents.

Remains of a reindeer that got entangled and then died a slow death in an old fishing net on washed up on the beach. Lågøya

Remains of a reinde­er that got ent­an­gled and then died a slow death in an old fishing net on washed up on the beach. Lågøya.

Flo­ra and Fau­na: Lågøya is very bar­ren, vege­ta­ti­on is very scar­ce. Some­ti­mes the­re are Grey Phalar­opes at the lakes and Com­mon Eider ducks at the coast. The Sabine’s Gull has one of very few bree­ding site in Sval­bard on Lågøya. Often, the­re are wal­rus, usual­ly in small num­bers.

Histo­ry: Lågøya has rare­ly been visi­ted. Occa­sio­nal­ly, Nor­we­gi­an trap­pers win­tered here in the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry.

Hut in Mollbukta, east coast of Lågøya

Hut in Moll­buk­ta, east coast of Lågøya.

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last modification: 2019-02-17 · copyright: Rolf Stange
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