Nuclear Ninety North Eclipse of the Midnight Sun August 1st, 2008

Cape Tegethoff, Hall Island

Our final landing in Franz Josef Land was at Cape Tegethoff on the southern end of Hall Island. The cape was named after the ship in which brought the Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition to the island in 1874.

This madonna and plaque, placed in a niche on the rock above, commemorates the Italo-Russian expedition to Franz Josef Land of 1994.

Hall island is 93.8% covered by glaciers: only a few locations on the coast are substantially ice-free.

These are the remains of an octagonal building from the camp built on the island by the 1898–1899 Walter Wellman expedition.

Bogs, streams, and ponds form from the melting snow in summer.

This jawbone is almost certainly from an Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus). We did not see any live exemplars of this species.

Polygonal terrain like this is common in the Arctic regions of both Earth and Mars.

There were fewer wildflowers here than on the comparatively lush Ziegler Island, but there were still abundant Arctic poppies. A one Euro coin provides a sense of scale.

And thus ended our visits to the islands of Franz Josef Land.

This panorama, assembled from 19 handheld exposures, shows the coastline of Hall Island and the sea ice calved from its glaciers. Click to view the full panorama and use your browser's scroll bars to explore it in detail.

by John Walker August 20th, 2008

This document is in the public domain.