Raudfjord

Raud­fjord.

Pho­to gal­le­ries Raud­fjord

The­re are seve­ral pho­to gal­le­ries at the bot­tom of this page to illus­tra­te the various beau­tiful sides of Raud­fjord. Scroll down or click on one of the­se links:

• Pho­to gal­lery Raud­fjord 1: some impres­si­on from here and the­re in the fjord.
• Pho­to gal­lery Raud­fjord 2: Hamil­ton­buk­ta.
• Pho­to gal­lery Raud­fjord 3: east side – Ali­ce­ham­na, Bruce­n­eset, Solan­derfjel­let.

Inner Raud­fjord. This branch is cal­led Ayerfjord.

Raud­fjord: Gene­ral

Raud­fjord is the wes­tern­most fjord on Spitsbergen’s north coast. It is a small fjord, at least com­pared to its neigh­bours fur­ther east, Wood­fjord and Wij­defjord. Raud­fjord is about 20 km long and 5 km wide.

Raud­fjord – the name means “Red Bay”, which used to be the name in his­to­ri­cal times – is a very scenic fjord, and rich in con­trasts. Some parts are good for ship or Zodiac crui­sing, other places afford space for litt­le walks or moun­tain hikes. Raud­fjord is part of the Nor­thwest Spits­ber­gen Natio­nal Park.

Pan­ora­mas Raud­fjord

I have got a cou­ple of pan­ora­mas which make it pos­si­ble to take a quick and easy vir­tu­al tour to some places in Raud­fjord:

• Ali­ce­ham­na, Bruce­n­eset, Solan­derfjel­let: Raud­fjordhyt­ta – the hut built by Stock­holm-Svens – Erik Mat­ti­las’ gra­ve which has a beau­tiful view and Solan­derfjel­let which has an even more beau­tiful view.
• Hamil­ton­buk­ta: rug­ged moun­tain walls and gla­ciers.

Geo­lo­gy

The­re ist a strong geo­lo­gi­cal con­trast bet­ween the east and the west side of Raud­fjord, due to a lar­ge fault that runs along the fjord. It sepa­ra­tes a tec­to­nic uplift area in the west, whe­re old, stra­ti­gra­phi­cal­ly low, hard, crystal­li­ne base­ment rocks such as gneiss are expo­sed, from an area of anci­ent tec­to­nic subs­i­dence – a gra­ben – which is fil­led with sedi­ments, the so-cal­led Old Red sand­stone from the Devo­ni­an. Now, this is the geo­lo­gy of the who­le area in just one sen­tence 🙂

Rug­ged, steep moun­tain walls on the west side of Raud­fjord,
car­ved into hard base­ment rocks.

The base­ment rocks are real­ly old: geo­lo­gists have found signals of tec­to­ni­cal­ly inten­se events dating back as far as one bil­li­on years in long-lived crys­tals in the gneis­ses on the west side of Raud­fjord. Com­pared to that, the Old Red on the east side of the fjord, appears almost young: being depo­si­ted during the Devo­ni­an, it is bet­ween 350 and 400 mil­li­on years old. Only! 🙂 The­se sedi­ments are coll­ec­tively cal­led Old Red, which is a pro­per descrip­ti­on, alt­hough the red­dish colour is not neces­s­a­ri­ly very inten­se in Raud­fjord. It is stron­ger in parts of Lief­defjord and Wood­fjord.

Less steep and most­ly gla­cier-free land­scape car­ved in Old Red sand­stone
on the east side of Raud­fjord.

Land­scape

The geo­lo­gi­cal con­trast is the main reason dif­fe­rent kinds of land­scapes on eit­her side of the fjord: the west side, which con­sists of hard, uplifted base­ment rocks, is much stee­per and more rug­ged. The moun­ta­ins are hig­her and the inland is hea­vi­ly gla­cia­ted. Depen­ding on how you count, the­re are 10-12 gla­ciers that reach sea level on the east side (inclu­ding the lar­ge ones at the bot­tom of the fjord), framed by more or less near-ver­ti­cal moun­tain walls.

Land­scape con­trasts in Raud­fjord: View from the eas­tern shore
across the fjord to the steep wes­tern side.

Com­pared to the west side, the ice-free east side of the fjord appears almost mild, with less steep geo­mor­pho­lo­gy and more acces­si­ble ter­rain near sea level. The­re is at least some space for walks and hikes, inclu­ding some inte­res­t­ing moun­ta­ins.

Flo­ra and Fau­na

The­re are some bird cliffs on the steep moun­tain sides with Brünich’s guil­l­emots and kit­ti­wa­kes, for exam­p­le in Hamil­ton­buk­ta. Arc­tic foxes have their ter­ri­to­ry near the birdcliffs, and it is quite com­mon to see polar bears roa­ming around in Raud­fjord.

Pur­ple saxif­ra­ge.

Histo­ry

Win­tering from Pomors (Rus­si­an hun­ters) and scan­di­na­vi­an trap­pers are known from the last cen­tu­ries. The hut in Ali­ce­ham­na, aptly cal­led Raud­fjordhyt­ta, wwas built by a Swe­de then known as Stock­holm-Sven. If you have read the Spits­ber­gen clas­sic A woman in the polar night writ­ten by Chris­tia­ne Rit­ter, then you will know that Stock­holm-Sven was Ritter’s next neigh­bour. But they didn’t mana­ge to visit each other.

Raud­fjordhyt­ta: Stockholm-Sven’s win­tering hut.

Pho­to gal­lery Raud­fjord 1: some impres­si­on from here and the­re within the fjord

Just as the name sug­gests.

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

Pho­to gal­lery Raud­fjord 2: Hamil­ton­buk­ta

Steep moun­tain walls, gla­ciers, small islands and bird cliffs.

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

Pho­to gal­lery Raud­fjord: east side – Ali­ce­ham­na, Bruce­n­eset, Solan­derfjel­let

Stockholm-Sven’s old hut near the beach. It is only a short walk from the­re to skip­per Erik Mat­ti­las’ gra­ve on top of a litt­le hill, but the view is beau­tiful. And it is even bet­ter if you do a hike up to Solan­derfjel­let.

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

←Back