Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 101, 2020

Tales from an Arctic Beach, Little Shells and Return to the Past - Petuniabukta 2010 Fieldwork, Billefjorden, Svalbard

Mateusz C. Strzelecki1* and Antony J. Long2

1Institute of Geography and Regional Development, University of Wroclaw, Poland

2Department of Geography, Durham University, United Kingdom

INTRODUCTION The Svalbard Archipelago, situated midway between continental Norway and the North Pole is one of the key sites to understand the mechanisms controlling environmental and climatic changes in the European Arctic. From the perspective of coastal research, for many years Svalbard and other glaciated archipelagos of the Arctic were slightly neglected or understudied (e.g., Overduin et al., 2014). However, recent research over the last few years has found that Svalbard coasts are highly sensitive to ongoing landscape transformation following deglaciation as well as the impact of marine processes in prolonged open-sea season (e.g., Strzelecki et al., 2018). Recently Svalbard became also an important place for investigations of the development of rocky coastal systems (e.g., Lim et al., 2020). One of the characteristic features of the Svalbard coastal zone are the spectacular staircases of uplifted beaches, which serve as benchmarks of Holocene sea-level change and coastal evolution reconstructions (e.g., Forman et al., 2004). In this story, we describe our fieldwork carried out in 2010 along one of such sequences of modern and uplifted beaches, which led to the construction of one of the most accurate relative sea-level curves in the High Arctic (Long et al., 2012) and was rich in accidents and stories that we will remember until the end of our academic careers.

REGIONAL SETTING Petuniabukta and northern Billefjorden are famous spots for most of the geoscientists working in Svalbard (Figure 1) including more than 30 years of polar research expeditions of Adam Mickiewicz University (AMU) in Poznan, Poland. For more information on local geomorphology and geology please see the review by Zwoliński, Kostrzewski, and Pulina (2015). AMU researchers for many years took care of Skottehytta (an old wooden hut), which served as the base of their expeditions between 1984 and 2009. This lovely cabin, which was taken over from Poles by an unknown hunting society in 2007, as you will see later on, is a pivotal place for our story.

Petuniabukta is a typical microtidal bay with a dominant wave fetch from the southeast. The coastal system varies from a rapidly prograding tidal flat system in the north (Strzelecki, Malecki, and Zagórski, 2015); rocky cliffs and shore platforms along the eastern coast (Strzelecki, Long, and Lloyd, 2017); gravel-dominated spit systems encroaching into glacier river mouth (Strzelecki et al., 2017) to paraglacial barrier coasts developing in response to delivery of sediments from retreating glaciers along the western coast (Strzelecki et al., 2018). In 2010, we took part in the 15th AMU scientific expedition in order to map and date sequence of uplifted beaches along the eastern coast of Petuniabukta.

DOI: 10.2112/JCR-SI101-061.1 *Corresponding author: [email protected] ©Coastal Education and Research Foundation, Inc. 2020

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Figure 1. Location of the study area (Long et al., 2012). (a) Petuniabukta, northern Billefjorden, central Spitsbergen; 1 – top of the Wordiekammen massif where we got lost in the fog; 2 – middle of the bay where our zodiac stopped; 3 – Brucebyen, where tourists burnt the cabin; 4 – Ebbadalen beaches where sampling and camping took place. (b) Entrance of Ebbadalen with a sequence of uplifted beaches. (Image Source: Norwegian Polar Institute.)

We used a large military tent as a base camp, which looked like a tank from a distance (Figure 2a). To make a space for Antony, the small expedition tent was later mounted in front of the base tent. Here it is important to note that this fieldwork was quite special for Antony, as he was returning to Petuniabukta after 25 years (Figure 2b). As a teenager he was a member of the British scout expedition, which climbed the Newtontoppen (the highest peak of the archipelago at 1713 m). I did not know Antony before my arrival to Durham for Ph.D. studies, so for both of us it was a surprise when we realized that the study area I had selected for my Ph.D. research had already been visited by Antony long before he decided to start his research career in geography. With all that history in our heads, we started the fieldwork by searching for the sites Antony visited two decades ago.

On the first day, I decided that we should climb the Wordiekammen massif to take a look across the entire bay and relocate sites where Antony took pictures during his first visit in 1985. Everything went well until the fog covered the peak of the mountain and I was not sure where the shortcut was to walk down the slope. We ended up standing above high rockwalls surrounded by unstable talus slopes in a fog which was getting denser and denser. So by the end of the day, instead of a quick traverse, we spent 4 extra hours returning to the base, the long way round – descending steep talus slopes is not a safe way of travel!

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Figure 2. (a) The large tent (tank) occupied by AMU researchers and the yellow expedition tent for Durham University team in the 2010 season. Skottehytta cabin, home for AMU expeditions for almost 30 years is in the background. (b) Professor Antony Long holding an old board in Skottehytta commemorating the Brathay 1985 Svalbard expedition he took part in. (Photos: M.C. Strzelecki.)

Zodiac Breakdown in the Middle of the Fjord The next day we decided to take a look at interesting spit systems developing along the western banks of Petuniabukta fed by glacial river sediments (Strzelecki et al., 2018). To do so we took an old zodiac from the AMU group and rode to the opposite shore. The weather was perfect so in few hours we visited all key sites, took sediment samples and had a fruitful discussion on my thesis. In the late afternoon we stopped at an old Russian cabin, which served as a base for a Czech polar research team. Our Czech friends welcomed us with a bowl of tasty polevka (soup) and provided tea (Figure 3a). The tea of course was an oxymoron. The hot liquid we were generously served consisted of a tea- like drink mixed with rum in at least 50:50 proportion, which had to be a gustatory shock, particularly to Antony, a traditional English gentleman, who has an almost religious attitude to proper tea. After two large mugs of Czech tea we decided to go back to AMU Polar station on the eastern shore.

Our Czech colleagues helped us launch the zodiac and in a few minutes we were in the middle of the fjord … when the engine stopped and the waves started to build. As you could imagine the old zodiac was equipped with a rather fussy engine, which did not like cold water. With stronger winds we began to get soaked by overwashing waves and when currents started to carry us towards the stormy waters of Isfjorden, we decided to call for help. The AMU base was (predictably) empty, with all researchers in the field so the only people who responded were our Czech friends. They arrived in a better quality boat, towed us back to their base and warmed us up with another mug of tea.

In the late evening, our zodiac was once again hauled by two Czech zodiacs across the fjord to the AMU Polar Station and after we changed our clothes we shared a toast with Czech rescuers … again with their tea that they had kindly brought in thermoses. We had definitely had enough sensations after the first two days of fieldwork to want a mug of regular tea before going to sleep. Unfortunately, I had bad news for Antony. That year the AMU group had ordered only flavored teas (lemon, raspberry, rose), a blasphemy for him, being addicted to good blends of teas warranted by Her Majesty the Queen.

Police Hunt for Arsonists After two days of adventures in the mountains and on the sea we finally started the key task of our fieldwork – mapping and sampling uplifted beaches in Ebbadalen. It was a rather windy and cold day and we had already spent a few hours searching for mollusc shells in beach ridges when out of the

341 Strzelecki and Long blue the Governor of Svalbard helicopter landed on one of the Late Holocene beaches we were sampling. In a few seconds, we were approached by a policeman. What we were not aware of at this point was that while we had been experiencing problems with our zodiac the previous day, a group of irresponsible tourists had broken into one of the wooden cabins in Brucebyen (a heritage site coal mining town established in 1919 by The Scottish Spitsbergen Syndicate Ltd. in Adolfbukta) and set a fire by accident (Figure 3b). Unfortunately, one of the cabins burned to the ground and the police hunt for those responsible had started.

Figure 3. (a) Enjoying the tea and discussing the physiology of local molluscs during the visit to the Czech camp in western Petuniabukta. (Photo: A. Pospěch.); (b) Burning cabin in Brucebyen, August 2010. (Photo: S.O. Grini, svalbardposten.no.)

We were probably the first people they found so the policemen suspected us for the crime and started a rather terse conversation. However, due to the wind and noise from the helicopter the interview resembled a Monty Python sketch rather than a serious interrogation:

Police officer: ‘Hello, I’m X from the Governor of Svalbard bureau, could you please tell me your names and if you have been in Brucebyen last night?’ MCS: ‘Hello Sir, I’m Matt Strzelecki and no we have not been to Brucebyen recently. Could you tell me what is going on?’ Police officer: ‘Someone has burnt the cabins in Brucebyen. Could you tell me what were you doing in the last 24 hours.’ AJL: (not responding, taking notes) Police officer (addressing AJL): ‘Hello, Sir what’s your name?’ AJL: (not responding, checking his watch) Police officer (asking me): ‘Does your friend speak English?’ MCS (surprised by the question): ‘Yes of course, he is a famous professor from England!’ Police officer (getting suspicious, addressing Antony again): ‘Hey, I ask you again what’s your name and what are you doing here?’ MCS (addressing AJL): ‘Antony, the policemen asks for your name and what are you doing here?’ AJL (finally addressing the increasingly suspicious police officer): ‘Thanks for asking! I’m Professor Antony Long from Durham University and we are trying to reconstruct the history of past sea-levels in the area. Imagine that you are standing now on a former shoreline which is 9000 years old. We are curious how quick the sea-level fall in central part of the archipelago was.’

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Police officer (looking at us): ‘What????’ (Then he just gave up and returned to the helicopter). AJL: ‘You see Matt, they are controlling us, but they don’t really care about science! What was he talking about?’ MCS: ‘Someone just burnt one of the cabins in the next bay. We were one of his suspects I suppose?’ AJL: ‘Oh dear! He should speak English with us! We better speed up with fieldwork before they come back!’

Dust, Bleeding Noses and Little Shells August 2010 was exceptionally windy and we had observed a number of dust storms originating from local outwash plains. What we did not expect was that our super-fancy expedition tent (Figure 2a), designed for Himalayan winter climbing, would not be prepared for dust. The problem was the ventilation holes that, even after tying, let in the dust particles. Therefore, every morning we woke up with noses and eyes filled with dust, which covered everything in the tent including our old rifle lying between sleeping bags.

Dust was also our nightmare during the mapping and sampling of beach ridges. As we decided to search only for juvenile and articulated shells of Astarte borealis we spent many hours lying on the uplifted beaches and digging shallow holes with our penknives and spatulas. Most of the large specimens found in the beach sediments were broken into pieces, but in storm ridge crests we observed a population of little shells with no traces of erosion that were preserved in their articulated form (Figure 4a). We then started to dig in uplifted beaches and found little (juvenile) unbroken and articulated shells in paleo-storm ridges. Searching for the perfect shells took hours! In one case we spent over 5 hours to dig out one unbroken sample. Collection of all the necessary samples took us more than 3 days and we were exhausted. To make it worse, excavating the beaches required us to lie on the ground and very carefully excavate gravel, clast by clast, from shallow hollows, so you can imagine with every wind blast we were choking with dust (Figure 4b).

Figure 4. (a) The modern beach environment of eastern Petuniabukta with well-preserved little shells collected from the storm ridge crest (upper inset) and broken fragments of larger shells in swash zone (lower insert); (b) Matt after several hours searching for little shells on ca. 30 m a.s.l. uplifted beach in Ebbadalen. (Photos: A.J. Long.)

The initial plan was that one of us would be digging and the second one would be on a polar bear watch. But in this area polar bears had not been observed for some time, so to speed up the process we were both absorbed in the shell search (the bears actually arrived in 2012 when a whale carcass was stranded on shore). So, if our health and safety officer saw us in the field, he would probably

343 Strzelecki and Long have had a heart attack. To be honest, many hours of this Sisyphean labour resulted in bleeding noses and conjunctivitis.

SUMMARY Petuniabukta and the amazing fieldwork of summer 2010 will always remain in our memories. We spent an inspiring time in one of the most beautiful parts of the Arctic surrounded by scenic landscapes, great science, great people and wonderful memories. Looking back, we know it was worth the effort. We proved that the careful collection of storm deposited, articulated shells from the upper levels of storm beaches can avoid sample reworking (Long et. al., 2012). Dates from 8 uplifted beaches in Ebbadalen resulted in a new Holocene relative sea-level record for central Spitsbergen (Figure 5).

Figure 5. RSL sea-level curve based on 2010 Petuniabukta fieldwork. The highest Holocene beaches at ca. 40- 45 m a.s.l. formed shortly after local deglaciation at ca. 10,000 cal yr BP. RSL fell from this level to reach within a meter of present sea-level by ca. 3100 cal yr BP. Later on, the RSL fell below present and rose again in the last few millennia. (Modified after Long et al., 2012.)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We thank our colleagues from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland for their help and support during the fieldwork associated with this research (Figure 6), and the NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory and SUERC AMS Laboratory in East Kilbride, Scotland for support with the radiocarbon dating under award number 1520.0910. MCS wrote this story during his NAWA Bekker Fellowship at Alfred Wegener Institute in Potsdam.

LITERATURE CITED Forman, S.L.; Lubinski, D.J.; Ingollfsson, O.; Zeeberg, J.J.; Snyder, J.A.; Siegert, M.J., and Matishov, G.G., 2004. A review of postglacial emergence on Svalbard, Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya, northern Eurasia. Quaternary Science Reviews, 23, 1391-1434.

Lim, M.; Strzelecki, M.C.; Kasprzak, M.; Swiard, Z.M.; Webster, C.; Woodward, J., and Gjetlen, H., 2020. Arctic rock coast responses under a changing climate. Remote Sensing of Environment, 236, 111500.

Long, A.J; Strzelecki, M.C.; Lloyd, J.M., and Bryant, C., 2012. Dating High Arctic Holocene relative sea level changes using juvenile articulated marine shells in raised beaches. Quaternary Science Reviews, 48, 61-66.

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Figure 6. Members of 15th AMU Expedition to Spitsbergen (from left to right): Antony Long, Matt Strzelecki, Tomek Wawrzyniak, Krzysztof Rymer, Grzegorz Rachlewicz, Kuba Małecki, and Agata Buchwał. (Photo: AMUPS archive.)

Overduin, P.P.; Strzelecki, M.C.; Grigoriev, M.N.; Couture, N.; Lantuit, H.; St-Hilaire-Gravel, D., and Wetterich S., 2014. Coastal changes in the Arctic. In: Martini, I.P. and Wanless, H.R. (eds.), Sedimentary Coastal Zones from High to Low Latitudes: Similarities and Differences. London: Geological Society Special Publication, pp. 103-129.

Strzelecki, M.C.; Long, A.J., and Lloyd, J.M., 2017. Post-Little Ice Age development of a High Arctic paraglacial beach complex. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, 28, 4-17.

Strzelecki, M.C.; Long, A.J.; Lloyd, J.M.; Małecki, J.; Pawłowski, L.; Jaskólski, M.W., and Zagórski, P., 2018. The role of rapid glacier retreat and landscape transformation in controlling the postLittle Ice Age evolution of paraglacial coasts in central Spitsbergen (Billefjorden, Svalbard). Land Degradation and Development, 29, 1962-1978.

Strzelecki, M.C.; Malecki, J., and Zagórski P., 2015. The influence of recent deglaciation and associated sediment flux on the functioning of polar coastal zone – Northern Petuniabukta, Svalbard. In: Maanan, M. and Robin, M. (eds.), Sediment Fluxes on Coastal Areas. Coastal Research Library, Volume 10, Springer, pp. 23-45.

Zwoliński, Z.; Kostrzewski, A., and Pulina, M., 2013. Ancient and Modern Geoecosystems of Spitsbergen. Bogucki Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Poznań, 456p.

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