Kapp Borthen
Map
General: An exposed low-lying cape to the north of the large Torell-glaciers, between Hornsund and Bellsund. Nobody would ever think about going there, if it wasn’t for the wreck of a German aircraft for weather observations, that crash-landed here during the second world war. The wreck is still there. Kapp Borthen is at the outer coast, exposed to wind and seas of the open north Atlantic Ocean. And the Torell-glaciers do not exactly offer great protection from easterly winds either, they are rather likely to produce unpleasent catabatic winds themselves. Thus, Kapp Borthen is very rarely visited, but is can be an interesting curiosity.
Kapp Borthen – a grim, lunar landscape with remains from dark days.
Geology: Basement rocks, almost completely covered with Quaternary ‘dirt’ (sorry…) such as beach ridges, fluvial deposits, moraines.
Landscape: The mountains of the west coast and especially the large Torell-glaciers make for a scenic background. Kapp Borthen itself is a very barren, rather featureless tundra plain and, in its eastern part, a moon-like moraine landscape. The area leaves a dead, inhospitable impression.
Flora and Fauna: I haven’t seen anything living there, even vegetation is rather scarce.
History: Mostly limited to the war history. A German fighter plane, a Ju 88 from Banak in northern Norway, had to crash land here on 14 September 1942 after damage from fights against an allied convoy. The crew was soon picked up by another German plane on an appointed emergency landing site in the tundra about 20 km further north. They destroyed the Ju 88 before they left. The wreck is still there, a bit inland; a ghostly memorial to the insanity which reached even the remotest corners of the globe.
← Back
BOOKS, CALENDAR, POSTCARDS AND MORE
This and other publishing products of the Spitsbergen publishing house in the Spitsbergen-Shop.
last modification: 2014-10-28 ·
copyright: Rolf Stange