Coal in the ice – mining at Spitzbergen
While coal mining is no longer practised in Belgium, France and many other countries of central Europe, and Germany is preparing to shut its industry down too, there is a largely unknown but highly interesting mining region far to the north at 80 degrees latitude: Spitzbergen.
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Miners’ memorial |
Svalbard/Spitzbergen
The Svalbard archipelago lies halfway between the North Cape and the North Pole. This group of islands is about the same size as Bavaria, but has only 2,700 inhabitants who are spread around four main areas of settlement. The largest island, and the only one to have permanent residents, is Westspitzbergen.
As the name suggests Spitzbergen is a very mountainous place: its highest points are eleven hundred metres above sea level and separated by wide fiords that end in huge glaciers. The northern part of Svalbard is the limit of the pack ice, while the south stays mostly ice-free during the months of the midnight sun.
Global warming has caused the pack ice to retreat, so that cruiser ships can now easily make the trip all the way round the island.
Svalbard has no native inhabitants and the island group was probably discovered by the Vikings in the 12th Century. From the 16th Century onwards – following ‘rediscovery’ by Willem Barents – whalers and trappers, including some from Russia, came to settle on Svalbard.
Read the whole article here... pdf, 227 kB
Source: Ulrich Schildberg, Recklinghausen (from Glückauf 143 (2007) No. 7/8)
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