Where the mountains slide into the sea

I'm in Svalbard! Friends, this week is really the entire reason why I'm in Norway in the first place, because I'm finally implementing my settlement plate experiment! I've ventured to one of the world's northernmost research stations to figure out what will grow in high Arctic fjords. To do this, I'm outplanting a series of square plastic plates, which I will recover in January and in September 2015.

My view of Spitsbergen from the plane

I landed in Longyearbyen about noon today, and let me tell you, it is an absolutely gorgeous place. Longyearbyen is the largest settlement of the Svalbard archipelago, located on the main island of Spitsbergen. The word "Spitsbergen" translates roughly to "mountain peaks," and if you check out the photo to the right, you'll see exactly what I mean. The entire island is composed of snow-covered peaks, which end abruptly at the coast. The mountains slide straight into the sea.

The inside of UNIS. I dare you to walk sock-footed in this place.
It's just begging you to run and slide!

After landing in Dreamland, I was picked up by Paul, my Svalbard contact, and brought straight to the University Center in Svalbard (UNIS). It's a pretty modern building with all-wooden floors, walls, and ceilings. You have to take off your shoes at the door and make your way around indoors in either slide-on shoes or sock feet. I went around in socks most of the day, and because the wooden floors were quite smooth, it was incredibly difficult to keep myself from dancing or just running and sliding down the long hallway.

I met with the two SCUBA divers who have volunteered to outplant my settlement plates, and we hashed out some details of this week's deployment. They both happen to be German, so we were able to hold the meeting in German. I'm beginning to notice that the further my project progresses, the more nationalities of people are involved. I'm American; Andrew is Welsh; there are several Norwegians; both divers are both German; and someone threw out today that we should get the Polish involved! Heck, maybe I should find a Russian to help out just for good measure. All joking aside, I'm incredibly thankful that each person I encounter is helpful and puts me in contact with another helpful person. Throughout the entire experience of planning this project, finding the money, and putting it together, I have been continually impressed by the quality of the scientific community around me.

Stay tuned for more news from Svalbard this week! It's going to be good.