Frozen family finally finds fossils!

(Not really that frozen... the weather was actually quite mild, 5-6 degrees, and very little wind. But it sounded good, so there.)

Our second attempt was successful, we managed to get up on the Longyear glacier - and found loads of fossils too. We carried home several kilos!

Longyearbyen as seen from Longyearbreen.

And the view upvalley.


The fossils are scattered along the glacier, in stone heaps such as these, shuffled around by ice and mud.


Ferns...

... and leaves.


These aren´t very old, in geological terms. Only 40 million years, and from a time when Svalbard enjoyed a climate much hotter than today. Nearly all the fossils around here are from plant material - but as most of you probably know, other, even more famous, fabulous, fantastic fossils have been found on Svalbard recently. Check here, here and here.

But we enjoyed the hunt, in all modesty - and the hike too, maybe one of our last before the snow settles. Last night, around midnight, it looked like this:


It still is white out there. Thomas asked this morning whether this means that christmas is soon. Nope.