yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Svalbard - The Northernmost Town on Earth


2m read
·Nov 10, 2024

Come take a walk with me, around Longyearbyen. That's the largest town on the Norwegian islands of Svalbard. Parts of it may look familiar. But make no mistake, this place IS different. At 78° north, it is just 1800mi/1300km from the North Pole. And with over 2000 permanent residents, it is the northernmost real town on Earth.

There are only 50km (31mi) of road, including the small streets between houses. So people get around the island mainly on snowmobile. In fact, there are more registered snowmobiles than residents. Anyone leaving town is required to travel with a gun and someone who knows how to use it. Because the islands are also home to polar bears. The average daytime high is below freezing for all but four months of the year.

Hi. And from the end of October to mid-February, the sun doesn't rise at all. This is the long polar night. Living here is tough. This past December, an avalanche in town destroyed 10 homes, which used to be here, killing two people. So how did this cold, remote, ice-covered archipelago come to be inhabited?

Well, the hills around town are rich in coal deposits that have been mined for over 100 years. The coal was transported to the port via a series of aerial tramways. Some of which remain today, though they are no longer operational. Coal is a reminder that Svalbard was not always an Arctic ice world.

360 million years ago, it was actually in the tropics, just north of the equator. A swampy area, it was covered with a precursor to modern ferns, which were much larger than they are today, reaching 10-30m (33-98ft) in height. This vegetation was then covered in mud and sand, and submerged under the sea. Over time, it turned into the coal deposits that in the 20th century brought miners from Norway, Russia, and the US.

Most of the coal mines have now closed and the economy is gradually shifting towards tourism, education, and research. Tourists take trips on snowmobiles and dog sleds. There is a university center in Svalbard which offers semester courses in biology, physics, and geology. And up on the side of a mountain, is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

But that's a story for another time. The locals tell me that interest in the region from different nations is increasing. As the globe warms and Arctic ice shrinks, trade routes are opening up across the north. And Svalbard is strategically placed between North America, Asia, and Europe.

So one day in the future, Svalbard may no longer be as cold or as remote as it once was. But for now, it is a reminder of how, through our ingenuity, people can live in even the most inhospitable of places.

More Articles

View All
See Through Suppressor in Super Slow Motion (110,000 fps) - Smarter Every Day 177
I have been wanting to make this video for years. A see-through suppressor with a high speed camera—COME ON! This is awesome! The problem is I didn’t have access to licenses or the equipment necessary to make it. All that changed when I met Steve. Hey, i…
HE'S FOLLOWING YOU! -- DONG!
Hey, Vsauce. Michael here, and if you need more DONG, don’t worry, because I’m bringing you more things you could do online now, guys. “JaydenMarkAnderson” recommended Clubcreate, where you can make your own remixes right inside your browser. As we liste…
Writing fraction division story problems
We’re told that Daryl spent 24 and one-fourth hours writing a chapter of a novel. Then they asked us, what are some things that 24 and one-fourth divided by three-fourths could represent in this context? So, my understanding of this is they really just w…
Ending Your Inner Civil War (Carl Jung's Psychology)
What drives people to war with themselves is the suspicion or the knowledge that they consist of two persons in opposition to one another. The conflict may be between the sensual and the spiritual man, or between the ego and the shadow. Carl Jung, Swiss …
Is Light a Particle or a Wave?
There is a video on YouTube which has Deutsch explain the famous quantum double slit experiment, which is about particle-wave duality. Is light a particle, or a wave? You pass it through a slit depending on whether there’s an observer and interference or …
Catch of the Week - Family Matters | Wicked Tuna
[Music] I 100% feel like I’m part of the yacht family. By all means, I do so. Right now, I’m super pumped having a little Danny on the boat. It’s 3:00 in the morning. I’ve been up all night long trying to get this bite. I’m going to see to it that this ki…