Carcass of a bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) found in the lateral moraine of the Jemelianovbreen glacier, eastern Svalbard
An 8 m long carcass of a bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) melted out from remnant glacier ice in the lateral moraine of the Jemelianovbreen glacier in August 1996. Folded and sheared sediment bands in the ice suggest that the whale was incorporated during an advance of the glacier. The whale'...
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Norwegian Polar Institute
1997
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ftjpolarres:oai:journals.openacademia.net:article/2277 2023-05-15T15:35:58+02:00 Carcass of a bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) found in the lateral moraine of the Jemelianovbreen glacier, eastern Svalbard Lønne, Ida Fuglei, Eva 1997-01-06 application/pdf https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2277 https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v16i1.6621 eng eng Norwegian Polar Institute https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2277/5528 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2277 doi:10.3402/polar.v16i1.6621 Copyright (c) 2018 Polar Research Polar Research; Vol. 16 No. 1 (1997); 9-18 1751-8369 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 1997 ftjpolarres https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v16i1.6621 2021-11-11T19:12:21Z An 8 m long carcass of a bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) melted out from remnant glacier ice in the lateral moraine of the Jemelianovbreen glacier in August 1996. Folded and sheared sediment bands in the ice suggest that the whale was incorporated during an advance of the glacier. The whale's longitudinal axis was oriented parallel to the direction of the ice-flow, with the thinnest posterior part dipping uFWlow. The posterior section was best preserved with muscles and blubber, although the entire skin surface was strongly decomposed and only a thick fibrous surface was left of the blubber. The abdominal wall was holed, most likely by marine organisms, and partly filled with a compacted mixture of well-sorted gravelly beach sediments and fat. the whale seems to have been incorporated into the glacier together with glaciomarine sediments and carried by the flowing ice to an altitude of ca. 15 m. Jemelianovbreen is a tidewater glacier with two known surge-episodes. The first and most extensive of these occurred ca. 1900 AD and reached ca. 7 km outside the present coast-line. Radiocarbon dating of a fragment of a caudal vertebra yielded 345 ± 40 14C years BP (1535-1660 cal. AD), suggesting that the whale lived some time during the last part of the cold period known as the Little Ice Age. Article in Journal/Newspaper Balaena mysticetus bowhead whale glacier Polar Research Svalbard Tidewater Polar Research (E-Journal) Svalbard Jemelianovbreen ENVELOPE(17.333,17.333,77.367,77.367) Polar Research 16 1 9 18 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Polar Research (E-Journal) |
op_collection_id |
ftjpolarres |
language |
English |
description |
An 8 m long carcass of a bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) melted out from remnant glacier ice in the lateral moraine of the Jemelianovbreen glacier in August 1996. Folded and sheared sediment bands in the ice suggest that the whale was incorporated during an advance of the glacier. The whale's longitudinal axis was oriented parallel to the direction of the ice-flow, with the thinnest posterior part dipping uFWlow. The posterior section was best preserved with muscles and blubber, although the entire skin surface was strongly decomposed and only a thick fibrous surface was left of the blubber. The abdominal wall was holed, most likely by marine organisms, and partly filled with a compacted mixture of well-sorted gravelly beach sediments and fat. the whale seems to have been incorporated into the glacier together with glaciomarine sediments and carried by the flowing ice to an altitude of ca. 15 m. Jemelianovbreen is a tidewater glacier with two known surge-episodes. The first and most extensive of these occurred ca. 1900 AD and reached ca. 7 km outside the present coast-line. Radiocarbon dating of a fragment of a caudal vertebra yielded 345 ± 40 14C years BP (1535-1660 cal. AD), suggesting that the whale lived some time during the last part of the cold period known as the Little Ice Age. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lønne, Ida Fuglei, Eva |
spellingShingle |
Lønne, Ida Fuglei, Eva Carcass of a bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) found in the lateral moraine of the Jemelianovbreen glacier, eastern Svalbard |
author_facet |
Lønne, Ida Fuglei, Eva |
author_sort |
Lønne, Ida |
title |
Carcass of a bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) found in the lateral moraine of the Jemelianovbreen glacier, eastern Svalbard |
title_short |
Carcass of a bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) found in the lateral moraine of the Jemelianovbreen glacier, eastern Svalbard |
title_full |
Carcass of a bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) found in the lateral moraine of the Jemelianovbreen glacier, eastern Svalbard |
title_fullStr |
Carcass of a bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) found in the lateral moraine of the Jemelianovbreen glacier, eastern Svalbard |
title_full_unstemmed |
Carcass of a bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) found in the lateral moraine of the Jemelianovbreen glacier, eastern Svalbard |
title_sort |
carcass of a bowhead whale (balaena mysticetus) found in the lateral moraine of the jemelianovbreen glacier, eastern svalbard |
publisher |
Norwegian Polar Institute |
publishDate |
1997 |
url |
https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2277 https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v16i1.6621 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(17.333,17.333,77.367,77.367) |
geographic |
Svalbard Jemelianovbreen |
geographic_facet |
Svalbard Jemelianovbreen |
genre |
Balaena mysticetus bowhead whale glacier Polar Research Svalbard Tidewater |
genre_facet |
Balaena mysticetus bowhead whale glacier Polar Research Svalbard Tidewater |
op_source |
Polar Research; Vol. 16 No. 1 (1997); 9-18 1751-8369 |
op_relation |
https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2277/5528 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2277 doi:10.3402/polar.v16i1.6621 |
op_rights |
Copyright (c) 2018 Polar Research |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v16i1.6621 |
container_title |
Polar Research |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
9 |
op_container_end_page |
18 |
_version_ |
1766366301288136704 |