JON Y .  LANDVIK and OTTO SALVIGSEN 
Editors 

The PONAM project in eastern Svalbard 

Preface 

Why would the modern scienlist choose to travel to the most remote islands of the Svalbard 
archipelago, spending days travelling, living in primitive field camps, carrying heavy equipment for 
long distances, and exposing him- or herself to the dangers of a desolate country and its wildlife? 

The answer is twofold. First of all, although modern earth science relies heavily on sophisticated 
research techniques and laboratory studies, there will always be scientists who enthusiastically pursue 
the study of geology first hand, in the field. Secondly, the organisation of major research programmes 
has made it possible for individual scientists to join larger expeditions and carry out field work in 
regions that require major logistics platforms. Consequently, a wide range of scientific studies can be 
performed within the framework of common, scientific objectives. 

The PONAM (Polar North Atlantic Margins, Late Cenozoic Evolution) project operated from 
1990 to 1995 as part of the European Science Foundation (ESF) Arctic Network. The main objective 
of the project was to increase our understanding of the Late Cenozoic history of the European Arctic 
which borders the Norwegian and Greenland seas. Investigations were concentrated along two major 
transects, one running from central Greenland along the Scoresby Sound fjord across the continental 
shelf into'the deep sea, and the other running from the Barents Sea, across Svalbard and the 
continental shelf into the deep sea. More than a hundred scientists and graduate students participated 
in the work, the majority from Denmark, Great Britain, Germany, Norway and Sweden. 

The terrestrial studies focused on the elapse of the last interglacial/glacial cycle; the field work took 
place in eastern Greenland in 1990 and 1992, and in Svalbard in 1991 and 1993. The scientific results 
were presented in annual internal field reports and published technical reports issued at the conclusion 
of the first field season in each transect (Lundqua Report 33 and Lundqua Report 3 5 ) .  The final results 
from eastern Greenland were presented in twenty papers in a special issue of Boreas (No. 4, 1994). 
This special issue of Polar Research finalises the publication of the results from eastern Svalbard. A 
synthesis of both the marine and terrestrial studies of the PONAM project is scheduled to be published 
in a special PONAM book. 

This volume comprises eleven papers which present results from the geological investigations of an 
area stretching from K o n g s ~ y a  in Kong Karls Land in the east, to B a r e n t s ~ y a  and E d e g e ~ y a ,  and to 
B j ~ r n ~ y a  in the south. The papers, which range in topics from Weichselian stratigraphy to palaeoflora 
and glaciology, reflect the interdisciplinary character of Quaternary studies. In an overview paper by 
Landvik, Hjort, Mangerud, Moller & Salvigsen, the main results from the individual papers and their 
contribution to the Quaternary history of the region are discussed. 

O n  the basis of the extensive research presented in this volume, we expect it to become a standard 
reference to the Quaternary development of eastern Svalbard in years to come.