Saturday 24 August 2013

Glaciers and hot springs – a typical arctic cruise day

The last day ended with lots of sun and our morning started with nice sunshine again. The time of the midnight sun is just gone but the nights are still very bright, especially under this good weather conditions. In the morning we have been focused on ice. MV FRAM found a good position in front of the amazing Monaco glacier and from here we started with a nice PolarCirkel boat cruise. For ½ hour we were cruising boat group by boat group through the icebergs in front of the huge calving front. The glacier was very active and the scenery changed constantly during the whole morning.  That was also nicely to be seen from the open decks or MV FRAM’s Observation lounge.





During lunchtime we were cruising through a spectacular landscape. It was always worth to be outside to make nice pictures. Around 16:00 FRAM reached Jotunkjeldene in Bockfjorden. Here we had our contrast program for the day – instead of glaciers we visited hot springs. Over a very rocky terrain of gneiss we climbed up the hill to see the different hot springs. The water has 20°C all year around as there is still volcanic activity in the underground. The warm water washed out a lot of carbonates. That was the reason why the whole slope was covered with a grey layer of hard carbonates. In the opposite side of our landing site we had the rock formation of the very well known “Old red”, a sediment stone colored red by iron oxide out of the Devon.



After dinner we reached Moffen. The captain brought the ship in a perfect position so that we got a good view over the walruses lying on the beach. Even it was already later in the evening the light was good enough to watch them and to take some good photos for nice remembering at home.