RECENT GEOLOGY OF SPITZBERGEN 



JOHN J. STEVENSON 



New York University, New York City 



The Spitzbergen archipelago consists of many islands upon a 

 submerged plateau. The largest, known as West Spitzbergen, is not 

 far from 300 miles long from north to south, and its southern point, 

 South Cape, is in N. L. 76 20', about 150 miles north from the out- 

 lying Bear or Cherry Island. The western coast is indented by bays 

 extending inland 20-80 miles. The surface, as seen from the western 

 side, is a succession of plateaux, 300-900 feet near the coast, and 

 rising to 1,600 feet farther inland, with irregular peaks, 2,000-4,000 

 feet high, scattered over it. 



The climate of the region in middle Tertiary times was not more 

 severe than that of our latitude, and familiar types of tertiary decidu- 

 ous trees, described by Heer and later by Nathorst, occur abundantly 

 at a locality about 8 or 10 miles south from Icefiord. The rainfall 

 up to a comparatively recent period must have been abundant to 

 bring about the baseleveling of the area and afterward to cut the 

 deep valleys, filled in later times by the glaciers. The rainfall now 

 must be insignificant, as during the very brief summer the tempera- 

 ture seldom rises above 4 C. 



In West Spitzbergen, glaciers begin at a few miles north from 

 South Cape and, at Horn Bay, several come down to the water, some 

 of which seem to reach back to the inland ice north from that bay. 

 On Recherche Bay, a branch of Bell Sound, and about 90 miles from 

 South Cape, two fine glaciers remain: one on the west side coming 

 down from Bell Mountain, 4 or 5 miles away, and another on the 

 southeast, which extends southward to the high inland ice. Between 

 these is a deep valley, in whose lower portion no ice remains. North- 

 ward to Icefiord, 20 or 25 miles, ice is present in notable quantity on 

 the upland, but reaches into few of the valleys, many of which are 

 open from the sea almost to the plateau. On the northwesterly side 

 of Icefiord, a vast glacier, beginning at 6 or 7 miles from the sea, 

 extends almost unbroken along the coast from Safe Harbor to Cape 



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