Sorgfjord

Gene­ral: Situa­ted just under 80°N at the nor­the­as­tern cor­ner of Spits­ber­gen at the ent­rance to the Hin­lo­pen Strait, Sorg­fjord is a beau­tiful fjord with a lot of inte­res­t­ing histo­ry. Ear­lier, it was also cal­led ‘Treu­ren­burg Bai’.

Click here for Pan­o­r­amic views of Sorg­fjord (seve­ral loca­ti­ons included: Eolus­ne­set, Cro­zier­pyn­ten).

Geo­lo­gy: Upper Pre­cam­bri­an, non-meta­mor­phic sedi­ments such as quar­zi­tes and dolo­mi­tes, tec­to­ni­cal­ly defor­med and most­ly stee­p­ly dip­ping. The same rocks are found fur­ther south in the Lom­fjord, in the nor­the­as­tern Hin­lo­pen Strait and on Lågøya.

The moun­tain Hecla­hu­ken on the east side of Sorg­fjord.

Stee­p­ly dip­ping upper Pre­cam­bri­an sedi­ments (light-grey quar­zi­tic sand­stone and dark silt- and clay­stone) on the eas­tern side of the Sorg­fjord (Cro­zier­pyn­ten).

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

Land­scape: Low pla­teau-shaped moun­ta­ins with wide coas­tal plains, on which the­re are well-deve­lo­ped series of beach rid­ges. The inte­riour south of Sorg­fjord is stron­gly gla­cia­ted.

View over inner Sorg­fjord.

Flo­ra and Fau­na: Very bar­ren. No spe­cial sites known regar­ding wild­life.

Histo­ry: Varied. The name ‘Sorg­fjord’ (Worry fjord) goes back to the wha­lers and may refer to dif­fi­cul­ties with the ice in this cor­ner of Spits­ber­gen, whe­re the Gulf Stream is loo­sing its influence. It could also refer to armed con­flicts bet­ween dif­fe­rent wha­ling nati­ons: In 1693, this was the place of the nor­t­hern­most sea batt­le ever when thee French war­ships brought up 40 Dutch wha­ling ships. 13 Dutch ships were cap­tu­red, the rest escaped. Some gra­ves at Aeo­lus­ne­set on the wes­tern side of the Sorg­fjord remind us of the dan­gers of a whaler’s life.

The Swe­dish-Rus­si­an Arc-de-Meri­di­an Expe­di­ti­on (1899-1904) used the eas­tern side of the Sorg­fjord (Heclahamna/Crozierpynten) for one of their head­quar­ters.

Remains of the buil­dings of the Arc-de-Meri­di­an-expe­di­ti­on at Cro­zier­pyn­ten.

Later, the Sorg­fjord was the pivo­tal point for the ill-fated Schrö­der-Stranz-Expe­di­ti­on.

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