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Nuclear Ninety North
Eclipse of the Midnight Sun
August 1st, 2008 |
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Wilczek Island
2008-07-30 09:31 UTC |
Click images for enlargements. |
79°56.07'N 58°20.62'E |
Our next landing was on
Wilczek Island,
where the 1873
Austro-Hungarian
North Pole Expedition which discovered Franz Josef Land first set
foot on the archipelago. The island was named after Count Hans Wilczek,
the principal financial backer of the expedition.
2008-07-30 09:40 UTC |
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79°56.08'N 58°20.48'E |
2008-07-30 09:59 UTC |
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79°56.13'N 58°20.34'E |
2008-07-30 10:00 UTC |
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79°56.13'N 58°20.37'E |
The columnar basalt so common in Franz Josef land is evident in
this view of the promontory.
2008-07-30 10:02 UTC |
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79°56.12'N 58°20.43'E |
This island was the bleakest place we landed, but as elsewhere
in Franz Josef Land, life clings to every niche in which it can
survive. Even the snowbanks were colonised by
snow algæ
(Chlamydomonas nivalis),
a photosynthetic extremophile which grows on
snowfields in the polar summer.
2008-07-30 10:04 UTC |
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79°56.12'N 58°20.43'E |
2008-07-30 10:06 UTC |
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79°56.12'N 58°20.46'E |
The freeze and thaw cycle slowly fractures large rocks into
smaller ones.
2008-07-30 10:06 UTC |
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79°56.12'N 58°20.49'E |
Seabirds nest in niches in the basaltic cliffs, where orange
and green lichen grows.
2008-07-30 10:11 UTC |
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79°56.07'N 58°20.44'E |
2008-07-30 10:16 UTC |
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79°56.04'N 58°20.12'E |
2008-07-30 10:20 UTC |
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79°56.05'N 58°19.85'E |
2008-07-30 10:21 UTC |
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79°56.04'N 58°19.80'E |
In the distance, the ship is flanked by two icebergs, probably
calved from the glaciers on Wilczek Island.
2008-07-30 10:46 UTC |
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79°56.07'N 58°20.61'E |
Bones of animals are frequently encountered on these islands.
Near the landing site, this whale vertebra and rib were found,
along with two reindeer antlers. The latter are odd, since no
reindeer are known to inhabit the islands. Since exposed bones
can last for a century or more in Arctic conditions, they may
have been left from animals brought by one of the
expeditions to the islands.
This document is in the public domain.