1 92 1. No. 1 1. 



THE STRAXDFLAT AND ISOSTASY. 



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the old flat surface ipeneplain» at the top of the mountains. August lo, 1912. [From Nansen, 1920]. 



above sea-level) in front of ScheteUg Mountain. The low strandfiat at Quade Hook is .seen to the 

 behind. July 31, 1912. [From Nansen 1920]. 



is nearly 2 kilometres wide and is bounded along its outer edge by a vertical 

 cliff more than 150 metres high. According to Hoel's statements and the 

 measurements of the Isachsen Expedition 1909 — 1910, this remarkably 

 flat plane rises gently inland from the top of the cliff, at a height of 

 about 200 metres above the sea. or somewhat less, and the plane attains 

 a height of about 240 or 250 metres at the foot of the mountain, where 

 the boundary between the plane and the steep mountain slope is to a 

 great extent covered by a glacier. 



As proved by O. Holtedahl's and A. Hoel's investigations this plane 

 cuts the strata of the Carboniferous system of which the land is composed, 

 and, as Hoel maintains, it is obviously a plane of marine denudation. 

 It has been formerl in a similar manner as the strandfiat at lower levels, 

 chiefly by shore-erosion by frost, assisted by the wave-action. It is hardly 

 conceivable that this very level plane, giving the impression of being a 

 quite recent formation, can have been exposed to any considerable glacial 

 erosion, for in that case it could not have preserved its level surface. 

 The probability is, therefore, that it has been formed at some period after 

 the time when this region was covered by the inland-ice of the Great Ice 

 Age. It has, however, been formed before the lower strandfiat of between 

 10 and 30 metres above the sea. This younger strandfiat has a fairly great 

 width at Ouade Hook and has obviously been cut in under the older and 



Vid.-Selsk. Skrifter. I. M.-X. Kl. 1921. No. 11. 14 



