Kongsfjorden as seen from Blomstrandhalvøya Kongsfjorden (Kongs Fjord or Kings Bay) is an inlet on the west coast of Spitsbergen, an island which is part of the Svalbard

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arc ...

in the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

. The inlet is long and ranges in width from 6 to 14 km (4 to 9 miles). Two glaciers, Kronebreen and Kongsvegen, head the fjord. The coal-mining town of

Ny-Ålesund Ny-Ålesund ("New Ålesund") is a small town in Oscar II Land on the island of Spitsbergen in Svalbard, Norway. It is situated on the Brøgger peninsula (Brøggerhalvøya) and on the shore of the bay of Kongsfjorden. The company town is owned ...

is located on its southern shore and is one of the few permanent settlements on Spitsbergen. It is also a popular shore break for cruise ships, although local scientists who monitor levels as part of their

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

research have voiced concerns that the excessive pollution generated by cruise ships is interfering with their measurements. Kongsfjorden was originally named ''Deer Sound'' by Jonas Poole (1610), and was known as such by the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

whalers until at least 1658. Giles and Rep (c. 1710) were the first to name it ''Koninks Bay''.

William Scoresby William Scoresby (5 October 178921 March 1857) was an English whaler, Arctic explorer, scientist and clergyman. Early years Scoresby was born in the village of Cropton near Pickering south-west of Whitby in Yorkshire. His father, William ...

(1820) repeats this error by naming it ''Kings Bay'', while he moves Deer Sound to a bay in the northeast of the fjord. Modern cartographers have simply repeated this error.

References

*Conway, W. M. 1906. No Man's Land: A History of Spitsbergen from Its Discovery in 1596 to the Beginning of the Scientific Exploration of the Country. Cambridge: At the University Press. * Norwegian Polar Institut
Place names in Norwegian polar areas
*Encyclopædia Britannica.
Kongs Fjord
Retrieved March 24, 2006. *Mount Holyoke College (2004).

. Retrieved March 24, 2006. Fjords of Spitsbergen Ny-Ålesund Ramsar sites in Norway {{Spitsbergen-geo-stub