The Coal Exchange - Svalbard - a photo on Flickriver

            The town of Longyearbyen which literally means 'The Town of Longyear' exists only because of coal mining. Named after American John Munro Longyear, whose Company started coal-mining here in 1906.
All the mines are now closed with the exception of Mine No7 which still produces a high grade coal which I was told was prized by the German car industry. I'm not sure about that, but it runs the local power station without which nothing human up here would exist.

This was the local transport hub with pulley systems running off to a number of mines in the area. The far right one with the coal buckets on it runs off towards the port. Disused and locked up - I climbed the ladder and tried the door, a relic of a bygone age.

Wild Svalbard reindeer in the foreground are foraging for whatever sustenance they can get from the frozen ground. They ignored us, they have no natural predators here, the polar bears only eat seals and if you get within 10m they just saunter away.

Svalbard was a most amazing place, it was never a holiday but it 'was' an adventure. Although administered by Norway it is an open territory so anyone can come here from anywhere in the world. We met people from everywhere and everyone was interested in everyone else's story.

We still talk about it!

Taken in: Svalbard and Jan Mayen / Svalbard / Longyearbyen (show map)

Taken on: May 10, 2019

Tags:

Longyearbyen

Svalbard

Norway

coal mining

history

reindeer

snow

arctic

sky « less

Sets appears in: • Svalbard, land of the midnight sun

Groups appears in: • Wildlife Photography • Winter Wonderland more » • Svalbard • Travel Photography • The World Through My Eyes ... • World Wide Photographers • Where I've been • National Geographic | World Wide • WorldLandscapes • The best photographs from around the world. • Winter Magic « less

Camera: Sony ILCE-7M3, f/16.0, 1/160 sec, 53mm, ISO 125 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Sony ILCE-7M3
Lens:	FE 24-240mm F3.5-6.3 OSS
Aperture:	f/16.0
Exposure Time:	0.006 sec (1/160)
Focal Length:	53mm
ISO:	125
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6.14 (Windows)
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