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THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW FJORD IN THE SOUTHEAST SPITSBERGEN, 1900-2017: CASE STUDY OF HAMBERGBUKTA

Anna Cygankiewicz

Abstract

In 1900, just at the end of the Little Ice Age, a present day fjord valley was filled with a huge glacier, Hambergbreen, which protruded into the Barents Sea. By 1936, a weakly incised bay, named Hambergbukta, appeared at the glacier?s front due its retreat. Afterwards, the glacier?s recession and frontal retreat have continued until the end of the 1950s, when a fjord appeared. This frontal retreat was reversed by the glacier?s surge which filled up the fjord valley with the fissured glacier?s tongue just after 1961. Its length in 1970 was almost the same as in 1936. Hence, the new fjord disappeared and its northern and southern coasts were taken by lateral ice-moraine ridges. Since 1970, the glacier has been retreating until now, with the resulting development of the contemporary Hambergbukta fjord. Three low plains have developed in its southern coast taking the majority of its length. In contrast, the northern fjord coast consists mainly of preserved lateral ice-moraine ridges, apart from a small plain of the Brotneset headland. Sea accumulation, shaping contemporary marine terraces up to 3 m high, and water erosion with sheet-wash at the foot of mountains are the main geomorphic processes along the southern fjord coast. Sea abrasion with melting ice from the lateral ice-moraine ridges shape the northern fjord coast, apart from Brotneset. Presently, the Hamberbukta fjord has achieved its greatest length (i.e. 9 km) while remaining closed from the inland by two tidewater glaciers, Hambergbreen and Sykorabreen.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2019/3.1/s15.095

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