The Smoking Cliffs of Franklin Bay, just south of the Horton river mouth

In a recent post, I published an illustration of the Smoking Hills of Franklin Bay  as seen by british Captain Robert McClure in 1850, when he was exploring the coastline in search of the lost John Franklin expedition:

At the mouth of the river Horton, McClure sent a search party to investigate what appeared to be fire in what is now Franklin Bay. Thick columns of smoke were emerging from vents in the ground. The sailors returned with a sample of the smoldering rock, and when they set it down on McClure's desk it burned a hole in the wood.

 

Those Smoking Hills are located about 1 km south of the Beaufort Sea, a couple of miles south of where the Horton River brokes through the headland.

 

The odd rarity is easy to explain - deposits of lignite, carbon-rich shale, and pyrite rich in sulphur,  ignite spontaneously when the hills erode and the mineral veins are exposed to the air, producing a constant smoke.  

 

The Smoking Hills are very impressive. They are a long (60 km) stretch of cliffs and hills.

Franklin Bay ( 69°40′N, 125°30′ W ) is a large inlet in the Northwest Territories, Canada.

 

It is a southern arm of the Amundsen Gulf, on Beaufort Sea. Franklin Bay receives the Horton River, after meandering through the Smoking Hills on the east coast of Cape Bathurst. The river snakes sharply back and forth, creating a curved line parallel to the coast.

RIVER HORTON

 

The Horton starts from a small lake, goes through a wild canyon, then passes meandering at the back of the Smoking Hills and reaches the sea on the east side of Cape Bathurst, at Franklin Bay. There the Horton's mouth forms a  wide delta.

As the river approaches its mouth, it starts meandering through the tundra flatland.

The mouth is presently a delta in the east coast, into Franklin Bay; but some years ago the river's course was different.

The mouth was then 100 kilometres  further north on the west side of Cape Bathurst, until about 1800, when a meander eroded through.

This NASA satellite image shows the deactivated meanders, now filled with sea water, as the Horton suddenly carved his new mouth to the east. It's a rare anomaly of its kind.

Siorapaluk, the northermost community in the planet

Siorapaluk is an inuit settlement located in northern Greenland, on the west coast by Robertson Fiord, only 1362 km from the North Pole.

Qaanaaq, the area's main village, is less than 100 km to the south.

Siorapaluk is also the world's northernmost inhabited settlement (*)

Coordinates:  77° 47′ N, 70° 38′ W
Population:  ~ 70.
 

Siorapaluk reflects on the calm sea waters that bath its sandy beach

Siorapaluk means "little Sands", after the small sandy beach in front of the village. 

 Sand and ice

The settlement is as far as you can go north in Greenland and still have electricity, toilets and a shop. And TV, and internet.
Somehow, the last outpost of civilization...

Houses are generally well maintained and painted red, with a few in yellow or blue.

 Typical village house

 The local shop and post office

The church at Siorapaluk, with the side tower bell.

 The new school

View from school downwards to the sea in a sunny day

Many of the inhabitants are direct descendants of the last migration of Inuit from Canada in the past century. The main source for living comes from nature - there is good hunting and fishng in the area: birds, foxes and hares, seals and walruses.

The sledding craft is a daily job in this part of the world.

Trips by dog sled out into Robertson Fiord are a small extra income from summer tourists.

Returning home

Average temperature varies from the - 20ºC in winter to a few degrees above zero in summer (with records of -60, + 18ºC). High summer days have 24h daylight, but even that is usually not enough to get warm.

In recent years, though, the climate is less regular, there has been changes in ice thickness and higher temperatures.

Tall sandstone mountains surround the village, in tones of red and purple, ending at the sea in a narrow sand track. Farther, a glacier is visible in the bottom of the small Robertson fiord.

Long shadows as the only means of transport - dog sled - slides to the low sun:

(*) as a native community

The Arctic in Venice: glace/glass, the art of Bertil Vallien

In Venice, an exhibition of glass works by swedish artist Bertil Vallien is displayed at Palazzo Cavalli-Franchetti.

Bertil Vallien's work is inspired by his experiences in the far north, in the glaces and glaciars of the arctic, and among inuit population.

Kayaks, the sacred myths, blue transparences, silence and light, the suspension of space and time...

All this in a venetian palace, looks ruther surreal; but the dialogue with the Murano glass works is rich in contrasts as well as in surprising points of contact.

The exhibition is called 9 Rooms, showing around 60 works in the first floor of the venetian palace.

Some of the works I liked the best:

The pendulum, glass, the tides, eternity...

This is glass - cobalt glass ! Not black, but a deep, deep blue.

More:
http://www.bertilvallien.nu/startsidan.html

Mykines, an island and a village in the Faroe islands

The village of Mykines is the only settlement on Mykines Island, the westernmost of the Faröe Islands.


Few people live in Mykines these days. Altogether there are 40 houses but only 6 are inhabited all the year round.


Population: ~ 21
Location: 62°6′ N, 7°38′ W



It is a beautiful little coastal village of bright houses with turf roofs, and a small stream flowing through. Almost a miniature of all the wonderfully preserved character of the Faröes.

Mykines island has no roads, and Mykines village has no streets: only well used footpaths weave between the buildings.


The old turf-roofed stone Church dating from 1878:


Houses around the church are among the oldest:




Mykines has a small harbour; a flight of about a hundred steps leads up to the village.

The ferry taking passengers, the way down many steps (at right).


Mykines Holmur


Mykines Holmur is a freestanding rock that is connected to Mykines by a small steal bridge, high as 35 meters. A lighthouse was built there on top of the cliff , in 1909.

The Lighthouse on Mykines Holmur

The access from the village to Mykines Holmur is cutted by a deep gorge called Holmgjogv:


Only recently a bridge was built across the straight, to allow tourists an easy visit to the bird sanctuary.

On the new bridge over Holmgjogv (the Holmur gorge).


The rock is inhabited by thousands of seabirds. The most large population is of Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica), the only puffin species which is found in the Atlantic Ocean. The curious appearance of the bird, with its colorful huge bill and its striking piebald plumage, has given rise to nicknames such as "sea parrot".

Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica)

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Though the regularity of ferry services can be disrupted by inclement weather, the ferry visits one to three times a week, except in winter.

It is possible, though, to reach Mykines three times a week by helicopter:

View from a helicopter as it lands on Mykines

HISTORY

The first settlers were most probably Irish monks. The first settlements of people from the northern countries is probably from around the 9th century. More placenames on Mykines are thought to have Irish or Celtic origin, and in this way are indicators of early Irish settlement.

896 - Mykines first school opened
1906 - painter Sámal J.- Mikines was born on 22 February, baptised Samuel Elias Frederik Joensen, but later changed his name to Mikines.
1909 - building of the first bridge over Holmgjogv, the narrow strait between Mykines and Mykines Holm.
1961 - work started to build a ramp to haul the boats ashore.

The painter Sámal Joensen-Mikines was born in Mykines in 1906 and died in 1979. He is the most famous painter in the Faröe Islands, and I published some of his pictures and facts in my previous post here.

The Kristianshús was Mikines' atelier; now it's the only visitors accomodation in the village, a nice guest house.



Sources and more about Mykines:

http://heima.olivant.fo/~mykines/
http://www.heinesen.fo/faroeislandsreview/