Hopen, Svalbard

Hopen, formerly German also hope island is an island in the Svalbard archipelago, about 100 km south-east of the island of Spitsbergen.

Description

The island is 33 km long and 2 km wide in the north-east. Hopen is located on the same submarine plateau as the Bear Island and the south-eastern part of Svalbard. It consists predominantly of the mesas Lyngefjellet, Bläfjell, Kollerfjellet and Iversenfjellet which consist of limestone and ranging from 150 m high Cape Beisaren in the north to the southern tip of the island, the 365 m high Cape Thor. These mountains are separated by a plurality of transverse channels in east-west direction. Especially on the west side of the shore drops off very steeply. At a height of about 30 m, there are remains of an ancient coastline with tree stumps and whale bones. Due to the extreme climatic influences of rock at the surface is very soft and forms especially to the east coast towards rubble and sand, so that the coast is flat there. The sea around the island is a few hundred yards shallow, so that form very quickly breaker. Therefore, a landing with boats is difficult. The leeward side of Hopen is often used by fishing trawlers transferring and Abwettern of storms.

History

Climate

Hopen is ice-free only from July to October and has no protected bay and no harbor, so it is very difficult for the Norwegian Coast Guard, which comes in July and September with supplies to land here. The average annual temperature is -6.4 ° C and the weather is often foggy and rainy. The average annual rainfall is 476 mm on Hopen.

Flora and Fauna

The fauna is limited to polar bears and arctic foxes, and various species of birds that spend the short summer here. Twice a year, come up to 400 polar bears during their journey across the Arctic Hopen. Especially during this time scientists can leave the station only with a firearm. The flora is very sparse and consists of about 30 species, mainly lichens and mosses.