Hornsund is a

fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Ice ...

on the western side of the southernmost tip of

Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norw ...

island. The fjord's mouth faces west to the

Greenland Sea The Greenland Sea is a body of water that borders Greenland to the west, the Svalbard archipelago to the east, Fram Strait and the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Norwegian Sea and Iceland to the south. The Greenland Sea is often defined as p ...

, and is wide. The length is , the mean depth is , and the maximal depth is . Hornsund cuts different geological formations, from the

Precambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the ...

to the west to the upper

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceo ...

to the east, and it is perpendicular to the main regional fractures of Spitsbergen. Iceberg-hornsund1 (js)

The coastline of Hornsund is diversified, with a number of bays at the mouths of mountainous glacial valleys. Some of these bays have appeared as late as the beginning of the last century due to recession of glaciers. A Polish research station has been operating there since 1957.

History

The

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

explorer

Jonas Poole Jonas Poole (bap. 1566 – 1612)Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004). was an early 17th-century English explorer and sealer, and was significant in the history of whaling. Voyages to Bear Island, 1604-1609 He served aboard vesse ...

visited Hornsund in 1610, giving the fjord its name after his men had brought back a

reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...

antler. In 1613 the first

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industry ...

ships used Hornsund, the majority of which were driven away by the English. In 1614 the fjord was ceded to the Dutch, but only for this season. In 1617 and 1618 Dutch ships again used Hornsund, but were either driven away or had their goods stolen.

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

ships also resorted to the fjord in 1617, and were forced to give a fifth of their catch to the English. The English held a near monopoly on whaling in the bay until they abandoned it in the late 1650s. In 1634 there was a dispute between the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and

Yarmouth Yarmouth may refer to: Places Canada *Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia **Yarmouth, Nova Scotia **Municipality of the District of Yarmouth **Yarmouth (provincial electoral district) **Yarmouth (electoral district) * Yarmouth Township, Ontario *New ...

ships there, resulting in the death of one man.

References

Fjords of Spitsbergen {{Spitsbergen-geo-stub