Nansen would have been bewildered by the total transformation in progress.

There has been a permanent change in Framstredet. The ice has become thinner, and there are far fewer thick ice ridges.

Fridtjof Nansen would hardly understand where he was if he were placed in the middle of the Framstrait today. When he let “Fram” freeze to drift towards the North Pole from 1893 to 1896, the ice was thick and countless high ridges of compressed ice created a hilly landscape.

It is no longer like that.