Indre Wijdefjorden National Park

Welcome to Indre Wijdefjorden National Park. I am your guide, a professor of glaciology, and I invite you to step into one of the most critical and sensitive environments on our planet. …

We have stepped off our Zodiac boats and now stand on the rugged, gravelly shoreline of the fjord. Take a moment to look closely at the landscape rising gently above us. …

Look up from the ancient beaches and cast your eyes toward the towering, jagged peaks that frame the fjord. We are looking at the birthplace of the glaciers. …

We now follow the path of least resistance, walking along the edge of the deep, U-shaped valley that the ice has carved over millennia. Think of a glacier not as a static block of ice, but as a massive, incredibly powerful river…

We have finally arrived at the grand spectacle of the park. Before us stands the massive, towering wall of a tidewater glacier. …

While the surface meltponds catch the eye, the true engine of destruction lies hidden in the murky, freezing depths right at the foot of the glacier. To understand the retreat, we must look beneath the waves. …

Let us turn our backs to the water for a moment and walk across the uneven, rocky terrain immediately adjacent to the glacier. This chaotic jumble of stone is the moraine. …

For our final investigative stop, we move to the soft, sticky mudflats near the glacial outflow streams. While the boulders tell us about the speed of retreat on land, the mud tells us about the deep, biological history of the…

As we conclude our journey through Indre Wijdefjorden National Park, let us pause and look back over the landscape we have traversed. We have walked from the ancient, raised marine terraces, where delicate seashells measure the…