%0 Journal Article
%T Polish Expedition to Spitsbergen in 1938
%A Köhler, Piotr
%J Quarterly Journal of the History of Science and Technology
%V 2018
%R 10.4467/0023589XKHNT.18.008.9461
%N Issue 2Volume 63, Issue
%P 7-27
%K Arctic, Spitsbergen, Polish expeditions
%@ 0023-589X
%D 2018
%U https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/kwartalnik-historii-nauki-i-techniki/article/polska-wyprawa-na-spitsbergen-w-1938-r
%X Polish expedition to Spitsbergen in 1938 was the fifth Polish expedition to the Arctic during interwar period. Four persons participated in it: geologist Bronisław Halicki (1902–1962) from Stefan Batory University in Vilnius, geographer and geomorphologist Mieczysław Klimaszewski (1908–1995) from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, geologist Ludwik Sawicki (1893–1972), connected with the State Geological Institute in Warsaw, and Stefan Bernardzikiewicz (1907–1939) from the Warsaw Technical University (organizer and technical leader of the expedition).
Polish expedition stayed from July 5th to September 6th 1938 on the Oscar II Land on Spitsbergen. The basis was set up on the Kaffioyr plain. Research was conducted within up to 100 km radius from the base. The main purpose of the expedition was to collect possibly enough data for comparison purposes that could enable studies of the Pleistocene deposits in Poland.
The 2nd World War prevented researchers from working on the collected data and from publishing them. Only in 1960, M. Klimaszewski published a valuable geomorphological study devoted to the territory located between Kongsfjorden and Eidembukta. The data and experience obtained on Spitsbergen were of great importance for later interpretations, both Old Quarternary and Young Pleistocene, as well as Holocene geological profiles on the Polish Lowlands.